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Magazine. 



The Kk;ht Hon. Lord Alverstonf, G C.M.G V 
Lord Chief Justice of England. 



S FADING'S ATHLETIC LIBRARY 

No. 279 



The Strokes and Science 
of Lawn Tennis 



BY 

P. A. VAILE 

AUTHOR OF 
"Modern Lawn Tennis," "Great Lawn Tennis Players 
"Swerve, or the Flight of the Ball," &c. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE AMERICAN SPORTS PUBLISHING CO. 

21 Warren Street, New York 
Copyright, 1906, by American Sports Publishing Company. 






LIBRARY Of CONGRF.SS 
Two Conies Received 

AUG 22 1906 

CLASS' <X XXc. No. 

/ S¥ 7 Zf 

COPY B. 



'X 



DKDICATKl) r.V PERMISSION 



TO 

THE RIC.Hr HON. LORD ALVERSTOXE, G.C.M (;., PC. 

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND, 
WHO TAKES A DEEP INTEREST IN THE GAME 



We reprint in this issue of Spalding's Athletic. Library, with 
permission of the publishers, the British Sports Publishing Com- 
pany, Ltd., 2 and 3 Hind Court, Fleet Street, London, England, 
the contents of a copyrighted book issued by them, "The Strokes 
and Science of Lawn Tennis," by P. A. Vaile. Mr. Vaile is a 
leading English authority on the game and is thoroughly familiar 
with his subject. The book has had a very large sale in Great 
Britain and has been pronounced by experts to be the best work 
of its kind ever published. The difference between the English 
and American styles of play should make it of interest to every 

player. 

American Sports Publishing Co. 



CONTENTS 



Preface 

Description of the Game 
The Court . 
Implements and Drt-ss 
The Grip of the Racket 
The Game 
Strokes 
The Service 
The Forehand Str<tke 
The Backhand Strike 
The Lob 
The Chop 
The Half-volley 
The Volley 
The Single Game . 
The Double Game . 
Mixed Doubles 
Ladies' Singles 
Ladies' Doubles 
Tournament Play 
Practice and Training 
The Importance of L?\vn \ 
English, American, and 

Compared 
The Value of Rotation 
Defective Hold of the Rac 
The Position of the Striker-out' 
How to Make and Keep a Court 
Afterword 



ennis 
Australasian 



Partner 



Lawn 



PAGE 

7 
1 1 

14 
17 
18 
41 
45 
45 
97 
121 

145 
149 

155 
163 
174 
181 
185 
189 
190 
191 
192 
196 

204 
212 
216 
220 
226 
231 



Spalding^ s Athletic Library. 



PREFACE 



There have been written many books on Lawn Tennis, but 
few, if any, whose price is within the means of the ordinary 
player show clearly the manner in which the most important 
strokes in the game should be produced. 

The object of this book is to set out clearly by letterpress 
and diagram-photograph the manner in which all the best 
strokes of the game are produced. In nearly every case the 
start, impact, and finish of the stroke is given. This and the 
accompanying explanation should enable any one to learn the 
strokes without difficulty. 

I have been compelled to illustrate these strokes myself, for 
there is no player in England who plays them. Here and there 
one finds a person who uses one or two of them, but it would, 
in a work of this nature, be obviously impossible to collect 
photographs of a great number of different players. 

These strokes are not here laid down as being the most 
perfect because I play them so. They are the most natural 
and effective strokes known, and are the result of the experience 
of practically all the most famous players in the world, except 
Messrs. R. F. and H. L. Doherty. This statement I shall refer 
to later on. 



8 Spalding's Athletic Library. 

It is contidcntly anticipated that this book will prove of great 
assistance, not only to bc^^inncrs but to those players who, on 
account of their defective hold of the racket, cannot produce 
the best Lawn Tennis strokes. 

Mv first book on the ijaine, Modern Laii'it Tennis, was published 
in June, 1904. Those who have followed the game closely 
know how thoroughly and conclusively the faults in English 
tactics and strokes therein dealt with were demonstrated at the 
i(}05 tournament, when an American lady won the Ladies' singles 
championship and an Australian player the All-comers' singles, 
and Renshaw cup. 

These faults still to a large extent exist, and we siiall be 
lucky if we succeed in retaining here those championships 
which we now hold. I regard it as practically a certainty, 
unless our methods are changed, that we shall lose all our 
honours in the Lawn Tennis competitions. 

Messrs. R. F. and H. L. Doherty are the only two P>nglish 
players who stand out by themselves on the result of the 
championship tournament, and in my opinion they were well 
served by the unfair condition which exempts them from 
playing through the draw. This should be abolished forthwith, 
for it is un-English and unsportsmanlike, and gives the holder 
a most undue advantage. 

I must not, however, forget to mention Mr. S. H. Smith's 
grand display against the American champion, Mr. Holcombe 
Ward. His driving and return of the service that dav were 
probably the finest that have ever been seen on a court, and 
his great match against Mr. X. K. Brookes in the final of the 
All-comers' singles, in which he led at " Two sets all 4-2," will 
not readily be forgotten. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 
Apart from these case.s, ti>e general standard of the Enelish 

srorti-rn::rc\rTart~^^ 

to have had the opportunity o/wrUnJ 'thi k ^^r/'^'^' 

tl.e natnra, holds and strokes p,a,ed L.y ever'wW e^;^ 
nr England ; for it stands to reason that a book of thi na re 
must have a very n,uch larger circulation than expens^e T 
can possibly have, and my aim is to increase the knn 7!, 
and popularity of the game as much as pos le '"'^ 



36 



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Spalding's Athletic Librarv. „ 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME. 

Lawn Tennis is played by two or four persons. When two 
persons play the game is called a men's or ladies' single, as the 
case may be. When four men play it is a mens double ; if four 
aches m America, it is a women's, in England a ladies' double. 
When a lady and a man play a similarly constituted pair it 
IS called a mixed double. Sometimes, but rarely, one person 
plays two, but this is not really recognised as a game. 

The size of the court for the single game is 78 feet by 27 feet, 
and for the double game 78 feet by 36 feet. It is marked out as 
shown in Fig. i. 

The game is played with rackets and balls, and consists of a 
series of rests, or, as they are sometimes called, rallies. A rest 
consists of the period of play which ensues consequent on any 
one service. From the time a good service leaves the racket 
of the server until the ball is dead constitutes a rest 

The court is divided at the middle by a net, which runs across 
It parallel with the base lines. The ball is knocked from one 
side of the net to the other until one side fails to return it into 
the opposite court. Either side scores an ace when the opposing 
side fails to return the ball into their opponents' court. This ace 
may be gained by ones opponent failing to hit the ball, by his 



12 Spalding's Athletic Library. 

hitting it into the net or out of the opposite court. The object of 
the game is therefore to place or drive tlic ball into the court of 
your opponent in such a manner as to prevent him returning it 
into your own court. 

The tirst plaver to hit the ball is called the server. He throws 
the ball up and hits it into the service court diagonally opposite 
to him. After this service is delivered each side must strike the 
ball alternately, hitting it either before it touches the ground, 
in which case the stroke is called a volley, or after it has struck 
the ground once. In the latter case the hit is called a ground- 
stroke. As will be seen later on, one may not volley the service. 
If he does it counts an ace to his opponent. All other balls 
may be either volleyed or played off the ground. 

The method of scoring is peculiar. The value of the aces 
is exactly thj same ; if anything, perhaps the later ones are the 
most valuable, yet they are assigned different numerical values. 
Many efforts and suggestions to alter the system of scoring 
have been made, but none has met with favour at the hands 
of lawn-tennis players. 

The first point or ace won for either side is called 15, and 
if each ^ide wins one of the first two points, the score is called 
" 15 all." The server's score is always called first, so that the 
score would in the case above quoted be " 15-love," or " love-15," 
and then " 15 all," according to whether the server or his oppo- 
nent wins the first stroke. " Love " in tennis scoring, and indeed 
in most game scoring, means " nothing." Why this word of all 
others was chosen to express "nothing" I do not know. A 
learned professor has classed love as the greatest thing in 
the world. 

If the server wins the first two ^trokcs the score is " 30-love." 



Spalding's Athletic Library. „ 

If his opponent win the next one it is "30-15." if the server 
OSes he next stroke the game is "30 all." It will thus be seen 
that the two first strokes are allotted an entirely arbitrary value 
of IS. The third stroke is assessed at ,0, so that it after 
30 all has been called the server wins the next point, the 
score ,s called 40-30. Should the receiver or striker-out, as he 
.s generally called, win the next point after "30 all," the score 
would be called 30-40. 

Either side wins a game when four aces or points have been 
scored, unless each side wins three points, which makes "40 all " 
but IS always called "deuce." When the score is at deuce 
.t IS necessary for either side to win two consecutive strokes 
before the game is won, so that once the score has come to 
deuce neither side can win by the result of one rest. If when 
the score is at deuce the server wins the next ace it is " vantage 
m. Should he then win the next, the game is his, but should he 
lose .t, the game goes back to deuce, and both he and his 
opponent require to score two consecutive strokes before the 
game .s won. It will thus be seen that if the score is " vantage 
m ' the receiver must score three successive strokes to win He 
wants one to bring it back to deuce, and then two successive 
ones to wm. The game may thus go on indefinitely. As a 
matter of fact there are sometimes single games nearly as 
trymg as an ordinary set, but this does not often occur, and I 
have never met the player who wanted to alter this system of 
scoring. 

When the game is won the receiver becomes the server and 
so on alternately. The score by games is called with the 
servers score first, or sometimes in matches with the name of 
the player who is ahead first. When the games are equal they 



14 S/'a/t/i/i^i:^'s Athletic Library. 

arc c.illcd i all, 2 all, 3 all, and so on, but if it is even at 5 all 
tlii> is deuce in games, and either side must win two games run- 
ning before the set is won. The games are not called in scoring 
"deuce "or "vantage"; 5 all or 6-5 would be called, but the 
same rules apply as in the case of deuce and vantage in the 
game ; for instance, if the score is 5-6 in a set, the server would 
require to win another game to bring the score to "6 all," and 
tlien he would have to win two more games consecutively before 
the set would go to him. 

There is no hard-and-fast rule as to what constitutes a match. 
Practically anything decided upon by a tournament committee 
or agreed on bv players makes a match. Ordinary matches are, 
however, generally reckoned on the result of three sets. Men's 
championship matches are generally decided by the best of 
five sets, the side which gets 3-2, 3-1, or 3-0 in sets winning. 
Ladies' championships and mixed doubles are nearly always 
decided by the best of three sets. 

The server must always volley the ball — that is, hit it before it 
strikes the ground ; but his opponent the striker-out, or receiver, 
as I prefer to call him. must wait until the ball has hit the 
ground before he can strike it. 



THE COURT. 

The game is played on a varietv of courts ; grass, sand, dirt, 
asphalt, concrete, wood and other substances being used. In 
my opinion grass is the only suitable court for the game, but 
this cannot always be obtained, so that in many places the 
substitutes mentioned are used. 



Spti/ding's Afh/etk Library: ,t 

In laying out a court one should allow plenty of room all 
round ,t, and although the court itself is only 78 feet by 36 feet 

TfeT Tv" :■'"' " '^ '"' °"' ^'""'^ ""' ™"^'''>' '3^ feet 1,; 
64 feet. This allows room for play all round the court If one 

has much less there is danger of being cramped in playing one's 
strokes. A green background is always desirable. A painted 
wall or fence is good, but a live hedge protected by wire netting 
IS preferable. ^ 

The court should be laid out so that the sun shall pass as 
nearly as may be across it in hne with the net, the object being 
to avoid having the sun at any time facing down the court 
lengthways so as to interfere with the players, particularly 
ni servmg or overhead work. 

In marking out a court you must be careful first of all to 
get your side line where you want it, and of course in line 
with any hedge or fence near it. When you have got your 
side line (A B, Fig. 2) your only trouble will be to g^i your right 
angle (A B D). The simplest way to do this is to remember 
that 3, 4, and 5 or any multiple thereof will give you a right angle 
Put m a peg at C four feet from B. Let your assistant stand at 
B and hold the other end of the tape. Now measure out 
twelve feet of tape, that is the sum of 3, 4, and 5, and let^ 
him hold both ends of the tape at B. Pass the tape round the 
peg at C, noting carefully that the four feet are correctly shown' 
at the peg. Keep the measure taut, take another peg and put 
it in at D, the corner of the triangle BC D made by stretching the 
tape tightly at the nine-foot mark. This will give you your 
nglit angle, so that all you have to do is to produce the line B D 
to E, B E measuring 36 i^^i. You can now measure 2>(^ feet 
from A to F and draw your line E F 78 feet in length. Then 



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Spaldifig^s Athletic Library. 17 

A F has to be drawn parallel to E B, and if you have both the 
lines A B and E F 78 feet in length you will be correct. It is a 
good plan to construct a square of laths on the formula given, 
and so test each corner. 

The marking of the court shown here is really the correct 
marking for a double court, but it is rarely seen, as the court 
is generally used for both singles and doubles. Having once got 
your outside lines, the rest is simple, for every line on a lawn- 
tennis court is parallel with either the base lines or the side lines, 
and it is a mere matter of measuring ; for instance, if you want 
to know where to put the net you measure 39 feet from 
the base line on each side line. If it is where to put the singles 
side line, you know that if you measure four feet six inches along 
the base line from the corner of the court, repeat the same 
operation at the other end of the court, and draw a line through 
both points, you must have your singles side line right, and so with 
all the other lines. 

This is really a better method of marking out a court than that 
usually given of settling the position of the net and measuring 
two diagonals, as in that case a trifling error in your original 
line may throw your side line a foot or two out, so that it will 
not be parallel with some walk or hedge. This cannot happen 
with my method, for you work from your side line in the first 
instance. 

IMPLEMENTS AND DRESS. 

A beginner should always try to get some friend to assist in 
the choice of a racket. Cheap rackets are generally dear. 
Although a paradox, this is a sound statement. Do not buy 



[8 Spa/(ii?i!^'s Aflih'tic Lii>ra?y. 

rubbish. Vou ^hould <^ct a good racket, and certainly not too 
tightly strung. A man should use a fourteen-ounce racket ; 
for a lady, thirteen ounces will be found enough. In England 
14^ and 13^^ ounces are the weights generally used, but the 
strokes are not so quick as the American and Australasian shots. 
Heavy rackets make for slowness. 

I am a great believer in knickerbockers for all athletic games. 
If lawn tennis is not an athletic game I do not know one. 
Trousers bind the knees. They are a little cooler certainly, but 
I am sure one can get about more quickly in knickerbockers. 
This, however, may be left to one's own inclination. It is of 
great importance that you should be lightly shod. The American 
says of his racehorses, " Better a stone on his back than an ounce 
on his liL-els." It is so with a man. The average player uses 
shoes that are much too heavy. Use the lightest and tightest shoe 
that you possibly can with comfort. You could play barefoot if 
you had to, and soon would. Accustom yourself, therefore, to 
the light shoe, and have it tight. This is of great importance in 
starting quickly. You cannot start quickly in a heavy, loose shoe. 
Do not be afraid to roll up your sleeves. In America even the 
ladies do it. 

A lady player should always have a skirt so short and light 
that it doesn't impede her progress on the court. The light shoe 
is im[>ortaiit to her, but sjie knows it, and ^enerallv has it. 



THK GRII^ OF THE RACKET. 

This is a matter of the gi eatest importance to players, both 
to begimiers and m.inv wlu. have played the game for years. 



Spalding's Athletic Library, 19 

The English holds are in my opinion thoroughly unsound, 
and I blame them for the paucity of strokes in the game and 
for the lack of rising players. The prime essential of a good 
grip is that the forearm from elbow to wrist and the handle 
of the racket shall be in one and the same line at the moment 
the ball is struck. In some of the cut strokes illustrated it 
will seem as though this rule is violated, but it is not so, for, 
although there is shown in these pictures a decided angle, at 
the moment of impact the handle of the racket and the forearm 
are in the same straight line as regards the" plane of the 
force, if I may use the term. To put it more plainly, if I 
am "cutting" a ball with a tennis racket or a tree with a 
small axe my arm is following down the line in which I desire 
to expend my force. The following photographs will illustrate 
very clearly the merits of the strokes advocated by me, and the 
demerits of those most prevalent in England to-day. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 21 



Plate i. — Forehand Grip. 

This is a strong natural hold, and shows clearly the position of 
hand, also the forearm and racket handle in the same line. 



Spa/diMg's Athletic Libi'ary. 23 



Plate 2. — Old Forehand Grip. 

This is the old forehand ^rip. It is still used by many players 
in America, and probably is to-day still the best grip in the game, 
as it allows absolute freedom to the wrist. Observe that in this 
hold the button or leather of the racket is held inside the hand. 
In plate i it protrudes and interferes with wrist work. 



Spalding'' s Athletic Library. 25 



Plate 3. — Remarkable Forehand Grip. 

This is the grip that gives Miss Sutton her remarkable forehand 
drive. It will be seen that it carries out to a greater degree my 
advice about keeping the arm and the racket handle in the same 
straight line. This grip enables the player to hit upwards. 
Nearly all forehand shots, except the chops, are more accurately 
described as a sweeping movement than as hits. In this case, 
however, the ball is hit with a strong upward glancing blow, and 
the amount of pace that can be got, the height it can be driven 
above the net without going out of court, and the length of its 
bound are all strong points that make a consideration of this 
stroke worth the while of any player. Any remarkable develop- 
ment of the forehand drive will come from this stroke, which I 
am fully explaining later on. The hold is bad for low forehand 
volleys, and if used as an unchanged grip is bad, but it is indis- 
putable that it has many virtues which have not yet even been 
considered. Mr. H. A. Parker, the New Zealand champion, uses 
the same grip, and gets a very fine stroke with it. 



S/'a/di/ig''s Athletic Library. 27 



Plate 4. —English Forehaxd Grip. 

It is apparent that the force which goes down the Hne A B is 
wanted at C, From A to C is unnecessary leverage on the wrist 
in its weakest position. 




o 



I 

f 



Spaldhig-^s Athletic Library. 29 



Plate 5.— Backhand Grip. 

This plate shows a strong natural backhand grip with the 
thumb round the handle and the arm in line with the racket. 
Notice the button or leather protruding. Either this grip or the 
similar one with the button held within the palm is the most 
suitable for a beginner. 



Spa/Jui<;\s Alhlctic Library. 



31 



Plate 6.— Backhand Grip. Rear View. 
This is a rear view of the grip shown in the preceding plate. 



V 



Spalding's Aihleiic Library. 33 



Plate 7. — Backhand Grip. Thumb up Handle. 

If a player has a supple wrist, and can produce his strokes well 
with the hold shown in plates 5 and 6, he should be satisfied 
unless on experiment he finds this grip better. It is preferable 
for some people, but not, I think, for the majority. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 35 



Plate 8. — Old Backhaxd Grip. 

This is also a fine natural grip that leaves the wrist perfectly 
free. Note that ihe. button or leather is in the hand. Probably 
this is the finest backhand grip there is, and if the 27-inch racket 
had two inches taken off it, no other hold would be used on the 
backhand. 



1 






Spalding'' s Athletic Library. 37 



Plate 9. — English Backhand Grip. 

This grip shows the same defect that exists in the forehand, 
namely, the angle between the forearm and the handle of the 
racket. It will be seen, too, that the back of the arm is facing in 
the direction in which the ball has to be propelled. Man was 
never intended to use his arm thus. It will be noticed that the 
line of force of the forearm is in the dotted line A B, and that the 
major portion of the power applied to the ball at C will be 
derived from a rather weak wave of the wrist and the sweep 
of the arm in an unnatural position. From A to C is unnecessary 
leverage on the wrist. 



Spaldifig '.$• AtJiktic Library. 39 



Plate 10. — Exglish Backhaxd, showing Thumb up Haxdle. 

This plate shows the position of the thumb in the Knghsh 
backhand stroke. It will be noticed that the thumb lies across 
and not straight up the handle as in the case of the natural hold. 
The pressure consequently comes to a considerable extent side- 
ways on the thumb, which is the position in which it is weakest. 



40 Spa/di/ig's Athletic Library. 



The racket which I have used in showinj^ these ^rips is a 
Spaldiiif^ "Gold Medal." It will he remembered that in Great 
Laicn-lennis Players I strongly condemned the double stringing 
down the centre of the rackets and also the excessively tight 
stringing of the rackets used in England. 

Racket-makers say that players ask for this, and they have to 
give it, although they themselves think it is wrong. It is un- 
doubtedly wrong. Although the long strings in the " spoon- 
face " type of racket give a little more " life " or resilience, 
the short cross strings of the narrow face counteract this to 
a very great extent. The perfect shape for a racket is a circle 
where central strings arc of equal resilience, but that would re- 
quire too much moral courage to introduce. The " Gold Medal," 
however, is trentling in the right direction, for it will be seen 
that it is much wider than the average racket of to-day, so that 
the cross strings are not always robbing the long strings. It 
has another quality that I have frequently insisted upon as very 
desirable in rackets, one that is noticeable chiefly by its absence 
in other makes, and this is in the matter of stringing. It is 
strung so that the ball has time to dwell on the surface of the 
gut so that the player can get a " hold " of it. In all cut strokes 
this is an essential, and after the lessons of last championship 
touinament at Wimbledon he would indeed be a bold man who 
would deny the statement that three-fourths of the modern 
game at least consists of cut strokes. 



Spaldin:^'s Athletic Libra,ry. 



41 



TilK GAME. 

In' the game of Lawn Tennis there are two distinct classes 
of returns with which the player has to deal. Previous to 
the publication of Modern Laun Tennis there had not been 
any definite attempt to separate them, but one might as well 
in billiards write indiscriminately of plain half-ball shots and 
cannons with the extreme of side as to include in the same 
category a plain overhead service and the American service. 

I shall therefore divide the returns one has to consider and 
the strokes one has to make into two great classes, namely, 
F-'lain strokes and Cut strokes. 

Plain strokes send the ball away with practically no spin on 
it ; Cut strojies make it fly through the air spinning as it 
goes. Naturally the conduct of these two classes on landing 
is entirely different. 

Although I shall separate the strokes which produce these 
di>,tinct results, I shall classify and illustrate them side by side, 
so that the student of the game can see at a glance the difference 
there is in the manner of producing them. 

There are certain general rules which apply to all strokes. 
Some of these I shall enumerate here, others in those places 
where they are most required. 

Perhaps one of the most important points to remember is that 



42 Spalding's Aihhtic Library. 

to get tlie best results from your stroke you must liit the ball 
with the centre of your racket if the present spoon-faced racket 
may be said to have a centre. The observance of this rule 
naturally includes tliat other fundamental one, " Keep your 
eye on the ball." This is a most important point, particularly 
in serving or dealing with volleys. These are, of course, 
elementary points, but it is astonishing how much they are 
disregarded even by experts, whose play naturally suffers in 
consequence of this neglect. The player should endeavour 
to keep his eye on the ball until he actually strikes it. As a 
matter of fact few, if any, players do this, but it is the right thing 
to try for, and all other things being equal, the man who lets 
his eye dwell on the ball longest will probably play the better 
and more accurate strokes. 

It is important not to get too near to the ball either in the line 
of its flight and bound or laterally. A beginner should aim at 
letting the ball bound, so that it will fall at its second bound 
about two feet or two feet six inches to the right of his left foot. 
Then he can hit it just before it would, if he left it alone, bound 
a second time and therefore become dead. I am in all cases 
assuming that tlie player is right-handed. When he is left- 
handed the directions will, of course, be just the opposite to 
those given here. 

Always grip your racket firmly at the time of making your 
stroke. The severer your stroke is, the firmer and stronger 
will be your grip ; but in every case the grip at the actual 
moment of striking must be firm. Between strokes you will 
quite naturally relax your hold so as not to strain your muscles 
unduly, and you will then almost as naturally carrv the racket in 
both hands, supporting it at the splice with your left hand. 



Spaldhtg's Athletic Lil>rary. 43 

A good start and a good finisli are as important in lawn tennis 
as they are in golf ; therefore whenever it is practicable either on 
the forehand or the backhand swing well loack before you make 
the stroke. Then wlien you have come well on to the ball, 
transferring your weight from the right foot to the left (in fore- 
hand strokes) as you make the stroke, follow well through and 
finish your stroke as though you were trying to throw the racket 
head away in the line the ball has gone. This, of course, is for 
plain ball strokes. In all cut strokes you must naturally finish 
more across the line of flight of the ball. 

I shall deal in subsequent chapters with the science and tactics 
of the game after I have fully explained all the most important 
strokes and have shown by photograph, and where necessary by 
adding diagrammatic indicators to the photograph, how they are 
produced. I want my readers to remember that these methods 
are the most perfect known in the game, and the holds are 
the best and most suited to produce the finest strokes, for they 
are the results of the practice of the greatest players known in 
the history of the game. They are the strokes that players in 
New Zealand, Australia, and America learnt from England's 
greatest players. They have retained them and improved on 
them, for they know full well that the present English grip is a 
retrograde movement. 

Not one of England's finest forehand drivers, such as A. W. 
Gore, S. H. Smith, or G. W. Hillyard, uses the English hold. They 
could not drive as they do if tlicv did. They all have the forearm 
in a line with the racket handle. M. J. G. Ritchie, too, who has 
done many good things, always produces his strokes in a natural 
manner, and with the grips insisted on by me. The beginner 
must remember however, that it is quite possible tl\Tt none of 



44 Spaldim^'s Athletic Library, 

these grips will he perfectly comfortable for him, and that one 
man's grip may be another man's undoing. If he cannot use the 
hold in each case indicated as the best, he must just get as near 
to it as he can with comfort, always bearing in mind the cardinal 
rule to keep the arm from the elbow downwards in a line with 
the racket handle. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 45 



STROKES. 

THE SERVICE. 

It is practically impossible to be a first-class player unless one 
has a good service. The service is the groundwork of your 
attack, and it must be the object of every aspiring player to 
cultivate a strong and varied delivery. If he learns to hold his 
racket naturally, and to discard as puerile and pernicious the 
idea that lawn tennis can be played to the greatest advantage 
with one grip, there is no reason why he should not do this. 
Two good general rules for the beginner are :— 

1. Don't try to hit your ball down into the service court. It 
will come down, if you hit it properly, of its own accord. You 
must get the idea of hitting it downwards out of your mind. 

2. Make your faults over the service line. Don't put them 
into the net. Go a yard above the net sooner than into it. 

This latter injunction is very important. A service is really a 
smash from the most difficult position. You must try to keep 
away from the net. You will soon correct your length. 

In delivering the service your weight will be on your right 
foot, as shown in the next two plates. The ball is thrown well 
up over the right ear and struck the moment it comes within 
reach of the centre of your racket. As you hit it you shift your 
weight on to the left foot and follow well through your stroke 
nearly to the ground. 




Platk II.— FoK'khani) Si rvice. 



Spaldi7ig's Athletic Library. 47 



Plate ii. — Forehaxd Service. 

Notice here the ball just leaving the hand. It has run up the 
first and second fingers, which guide it in its flight. The racket 
is in the act of falling behind the head to gather momentum. 
The greater weight is on the rear foot, and the balance is dis- 
tributed between the balls of the big toes of each foot. This is 
important. It may be called the starting-point. It is where you 
grip the earth. Notice the position of the feet, one facing down 
the court, the other at right angles. This is the best position for 
balance of body weight, which is essential in lawn tennis. 




PlATK 12.— FOKKHANl) SERVICE. 



Spalding^s Athletic Library. 



49 



Plate 12. — Forehand Service. 

Notice here particularly the position of the feet, the distribution 
of the weight, the drooped right shoulder with body and head 
right back, the racket behind the head, and the balance of the 
extended left arm with lightly clenched hand. The hand should 
never be loose ; the arm should never be loose. Whatever the 
right arm is doing, the left should be counterbalancing. 



Pl\tb 13— FokEHAXD Ser\ice. Impact. 



S/>a/Ji/ig's Athletic Library. 51 



Plate 13. — Forehand Service. Impact. 

Here it will be seen the weight has been transferred straight 
on to and down the left foot in a line towards the net. The ball 
has been struck fairly, and will go away appro.ximately in the 
line A B. 




Platk 14— Finish of Forkhand Service. 



Spaldi/ig's Ailiktic Library. 



53 



Plate 14. — Finish of Forehand Service. 

The force of the blow in delivering the service is here shown 
to be carrying the player into his stride for the net. In this 
service the head of the racket follows through, as though thrown 
after the ball. 



II 




PlATK 15.— FoHKHAXI) ClT Skuvice, 



Sj)alding's Athletic Library. 55 



Plate 15.— Forehand Cut Service. 

This is a most useful service. Wiieii serving from the right 
court it skims over the net and pitches near the opposite side hne, 
keeps very low, and breaks away out of court. Well placed, it 
drives a player so far out of court as to leave almost a certain 
passing shot on his backhand before he can regain his position. 
The racket cuts across the ball as shown by the line on it. 




Plate i6.— Fokkhand Cit Skrvick Impact. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 57 



Plate 16. — Forehand Cut Service. Impact. 

The racket is cutting across the ball as shown by the line 
on it. Note position of feet, balance of left arm, and that 
the racket and arm are in the same straight line as regards 
the force to be exerted, namely, in the direction of the mark 
on the ball. 




Platk 17.— Finish of Fokkhanu Cut Service. 



Spalding^s Atlikiic Library. 59 



Plate 17.— Finish of Forehand Cut Service. 

The racket has traveUed down the dotted Hue and finished 
away out to one side of the player, not as in the plain service 
right in the Hne of flight of the ball. Notice the relative position 
of arm and racket. 




Platk iS.— Chop Skrvick. 



Spalding^ s Athletic Library. 6i 



Plate i8. — Chop Service. 

This is a most useful change service. The racket travels 
along the dotted hne until it reaches the ball as shown in the 
next plate. 



Itti^ 




I^LATE 19— Thf Chop Skk'vici:. Imp 



ACT. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 63 



Plate 19. — The Chop Service. Impact. 

The racket is here shown cutting down behind the ball. 
This causes it to fly with a large amount of back spin. It 
is a nasty service to play, as it shoots low and sometimes breaks 
a good deal ; also the back spin on it makes it very tricky to 
return, as unless it is allowed for and the return played higher 
than off a plain ball, it is likely to find the net. 




Plate 20.— The Chop Service. Finish. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 65 



Plate 20. — TiiE Chop Service. Finish. 

The linish in this service is mucli the same as that in the 
forehand cut service, but it is generally straighter down towards 
the ground. Note the position of the feet. 




ri ATE 21.— KEVEKSE 0\ EKHEAO CLT SERVICE. START. 



Spalditig's Athletic Library. 



67 



Plate 2i,-Reversf. Overhead Cut Service. Start, 

This is one of the finest services in the game. The racket 
head droops behind tlie liead and comes round as shown by 
^le dotted line until it hits the ball as shown in the next plate 
Notice the weight here is thrown to the right side, as it is to be 
used towards the left. This is a particularly nasty service as 
■t b,eal;s aw.ay to one's bacl<hand, and. moreover, it is cora- 
paral.vely rare. In England it is pr.actically unknown 




IM.ATK 22.--KHVKNSK OVIRHKAD SKK'VKF. ImI'M 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 69 



Plate 22. — Reverse Overhead Service. Impact. 

Here the racket is passing across the ball in the line shown on 
it, and thus imparting to it a spinning motion from left to right. 
The ball is not quite in contact. It has to drop an inch or 
two to the centre of the racket. Notice the position of body 
and feet. For this service one nearly faces the net. 




Plate 23.--Rkvkrse Ovekhkad Cit Service. Short Grip. 



Spaidi;/i;'s Alhkfic Library. 



n 



Plate 23.-REVERSE Ovekhead Cut Service Short Grip. 

It is a curious fact not generally known that by shortening the 
racket as shown in photograph one can g^i a very great amount 
of spin on a ball. Mr. N. E. Brookes, the Australian player, 
occasionally serves a very fine service with the shortened grip. 




I i 



I'l.ATK 24. Finish oi- Rkvkksk Ovekhead Cut Service. 



S/a/</i/r.;'s Athletic Library. 73 



Plate 24.— Finish of Reverse Overhead Cut Service. 

The racket head has passed down the dotted Hne, and the 
stroke is finished well across the bod}- as shown. If too much 
effort is put into the cut across, it makes the server slow in 
following up his service. 




^ 



1 ^ ' 


i 


^^^^^^^^^?^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 



Platk 25.— Thk Amkrican Skkvick 



S/)a/di/ii;'s ^- 1 (hie lie Library. 75 



Plate 25.— The American- Service, 

This is a delivery of the utmost importance, yet so far no 
first-class English player has acquired it. Their hold practically 
prevents them from doing so. Dr. Eaves, the Australian player, 
uses this stroke very well, and Mr. Anthony Wilding, the New 
Zealand player, is developing a fine service, as he plays both 
this and the reverse American quite well occasionally. 

It is produced by "top," "lift." "upper cut," call it what you 
will ; and the more vou can cut over the top of the ball and 
the harder you can hit it, the more eccentric and effective 
will be your deliveries. The line across the ball shows how 
your racket should cut upwards and sideways across the ball. 
This is a rear view of the player. 




Pl.ATK 26. Thk Amkkican SEiniCK 



Spaldifig s At file tic Library 



77 



Plate 26. — Thp: American Service. 

This is a front view of the service. In dehvering it many 
Americans throw the ball up so that it is about the spot shown 
by the dotted ball. They then bend themselves back until they 
are nearly the shape of the letter U, and hit the ball with 
a lot of upward cut. To keep this up, however, one requires 
to be in perfect condition and practice, for it is very hard 
on the abdominal muscles. 



Plate 27. — The American Service. 



S/^a/di/ig's A/h/e/ic Libfaiy. y() 



Platk 27. — TuK Amehicax Skkvice. 

This shows ahnost the moment of impact. The ball should, 
if anything, be a foot or nine inches nearer to the left, but a 
very effective service may be obtained from this position. The 
dotted line shou's the travel of the head of the racket. The 
ant^le at M'hich it crosses the ball is all-important, as on this 
depends whether you get American, that is " top," or ordi- 
nary cut. 




l^l.ATK 28. — TlIK .\MF.I\'K AN SliKVlCK. IMPACT. 



S/>a/(i/;/^-\^ Athletic Library. %i 



Platf. 28.— The Ai^iericax Service. Impact. 

This photograph is taken down the Hue, and shows the position 
of the racket at the moment of impact. After one has acquired 
a fair degree of accuracy at this angle, an attempt should be 
made to turn the top side of the racket more forward so as 
to come over the ball more. The dotted line shows how the 
racket cuts up behind the ball. The line in front of the ball 
shows approximately its line of flight. 




Plate 28.\.— The Amikican Service. Imeact. 



spa/ding's Aihlelic Library. 83 



Plate 28A. — The American Service. Impact. 

To the untrained eye this plate will appear to be exactly 
the same as the preceding one, yet it has a most important 
lesson of its own to teach. This is in the difference of the 
angle in the face of the racket. Here it will be seen that the 
upper side of the racket is turned over forwards more than 
in the preceding plate. This is a matter of the greatest im- 
portance in this service. The more you can get on top of 
the ball and yet clear the net, the harder and faster will you 
be able to serve, and the longer and more eccentric will be your 
bound. A B shows the line of travel of the racket head and 
C D the flight of the ball. 




f 





Plate 2y.-THE Amkkkan Service. Finish. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 85 



Plate 29. — The American Service. Finish. 

It is a peculiarity of the American service that the finish is 
as shown in the photograph. One would almost expect the 
weight to be thrown across and on to the right leg, yet it 
never is ; in fact, generally the right foot- is quite clear of the 
ground. The explanation is that all one's body weight is exerted 
upwardly, and this is why if the extreme of spin is desired it is 
so important to throw the ball well over to the left and to bend 
well backwards to it so as to get the snap of the body upwards. 




Plate 30. -Kkvkinsk American Skkvice. 



Spalduig's AtJiletic Library. 87 



Plate 30. — Reverse .American Service. 

The dotted line shows how the head of the racket falls like 
an Indian club makin^^ a turn behind one's back, and then 
cuts up and across the ball as shown by the line on it and 
the continuation of the dotted line. Note how the weight is 
thrown on to the right leg and the body bent over to the 
right to get the upward hit. 



V; 



a 




/ 



/ 



$ 




Plate 31.— Rf.vfrse A^^FRICA^' Service. 



Spalding^ s A i hie he Library. 89 



Pl^ATK 31. — ReVKRSK AMEraCAN SERVICE. 

Looking down the line it will be seen that the face of the 
racket is laid back at the moment of impact. It is easier to 
learn the stroke thus, and one can get a large amount of cut 
in this manner. Both the American service and the reverse 
American service break back against the way they are swerving. 
It is this peculiarity that makes them so tricky. The blow in 
this case is being struck across away from us upwardly and 
towards the left to A and the ball flies away to B. 



Plate 32.— Kevekse American Service. 



Spahlifig^s Athletic Liiwary. 91 



Plate 32.— Reverse American Service. 

This is a moment before impact. The dotted Hue shows how 
tlie racket passes upwards and across from right to left, imparting 
top or forward spin to the ball. In this service one faces the 
net. Notice the distrilMition of weight, position of feet, and 
balance of left arm. 




I'LAfK ^^V -f^PVF.KSK AMFKICAN SKRVICK. FlNISM. 



Spaldi7ig''s Atlikfic Libraiy. ^^ 



Plate 33. — Reverse American Service. Finish. 

The finish in this service is very similar to that of the reverse 
overhead cut service ; indeed, frequently one who serves the 
reverse overhead cut well gets an American without intending 
it. This was particularly noticeable in M. Paul de Borman's 
fine reverse overhead service. The dotted line shows the travel 
of the head of the racket. Notice position of feet and balance. 




Plate 34.— Waiting for Sf.kvice. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 



95 



Plate 34. — Waiting for SEkvicE. 

This is a most important position. One must not stand with 
stiff legs and in a state of inaction. The weight should be 
thrown forward on to the ball of the toe, and the knees slightly 
Hexed, for you cannot start from a straight joint without first 
Hexing it. The racket should be held as shown in the plate, 
and the player should be nearly overbalanced so as to be ready 
to start like a flash in any given direction. Stand as nearly as 
possible diagonally opposite to the server unless you know of 
any peculiarity in his service which makes it advisable to take 
up another position. 




Plate 35. — Fokkhanu Stkokk. Swing Balk. 



spa/ding's Athletic Library 



97 



THE FOREHAND STROKE. 

This stroke is the foundation of nearly every plaver's game, 
and too much trouble in mastering it cannot be taken by any 
one who wishes to become first class. 

For the forehand stroke you must stand with your left side to 
the net and, roughly speaking, in a line towards the place you 
intend to hit the ball to. Your left foot will be in front and your 
right foot will be about eighteen inches behind it. Just as you 
are striking the ball you transfer 3'our weight from your right 
leg to your left. If this transference is done well you will find it 
adds much to the effectiveness of your stroke. As you become 
more accurate you will probably step in to your ball as you play 
it by taking a short step with the left foot. You must always 
have your weight fairly evenly distributed until you are going to 
play a stroke. Then, in the case of a forehand drive, it is thrown 
back on to the right foot until almost the moment of making the 
stroke. 

You must, in the lirst instance, aim at acquiring certainty in 
returning plain balls. When you have got that you may take up 
the more difficult cut strokes and indulge in a few attempts at 
driving with plenty of pace ; but always remember that accuracy 
in playing the plain ball strokes with good length and position is 
the foundation of the game. 

Plate 35 — Forehand Stroke. Swing Back. 

Here the ball is shown approaching the player. The racket 
is swung back to about the level of the shoulder, the weight 
is on the right leg, and the left arm is extended to balance. 
Notice carefully the position of the feet. 

D 




Plate 36. — Forehand Stroke. Impact. 



Spa/din<^''s Athletic Library. gn 



Plate 36. — Forehand Stroke. Impact. 

The weight is just being transferred to the left foot. Notice 
position of feet and balance. This is a perfectly plain stroke ; 
that is, the ball comes off the racket as if it were bounding off 
the wall of a house, practically without spin. Notice the 
position of the ball both laterally and longitudinally with 
relation to the body of the player. With this stroke it could 
be played with comfort nine inches or a foot nearer to the 
left leg. This would be impossible with the English grip. 




Plate 37.— Ft^KKHAXD Stroke. Finish. 



Spalding's Athletic Library 



lot 



Plate 37.— Forehand Stroke. Finish. 

The racket has struck the ball and followed after it in the 
line of its flight as though the head of the racket were being 
thrown after the ball. This is a true follow through. The 
stroke is a most useful one, and is much superior to the 
ordinary English forehand, which cramps the player's stroke 
too much unless he gets it exactly at the right distance from 
him. I have seen a man play a first-class game with no other 
forehand stroke but this. There are, however, more valuable 
shots on the forehand, as I shall show in due course. Note 
the position of feet and the balance. 




i 5 



Spalding'' s Athletic Library. 103 



Plate 38.— Forehand Drive with Lift. 

Observe the swing back, the racket in hne with the arm, 
and the weight on the right foot, also position of left arm, 
which has come back naturally with the right. 

The curved dotted line A B shows how the head of the 
racket will travel, and the line C D in front of the ball indicates 
approximately the flight thereof. 




Plate 3«^-^Fi.kkhani) Dkive with Liit. Impact. 



Spa/di/ig's Athletic Library. 105 



Plate 39. — Forehand Drive with Lift. Impact. 

The weight here is transferred to the left foot and the 
racket is comuig rapidly forward and upward in the line A B, 
producing the flight C D, and causing the ball to spin forward 
as shown by the arrow on it. This spin is called lift top or 
overspin, and it causes the ball to dip suddenly at the end of 
its flight, so that many balls which appear to be going out 
of court dive suddenly into it in a very deceptive manne 




Flat I- 40. 



Finish of Kmkihand Dkmvk with Liit. 



Spa/ding's Athtetic Library. 



07 



Plate 40. — Finish of Forehand Drive with Lift, 

'Notice the transference of weight on to the ball of the toe 
of the left foot, and the finish across the body instead of 
straight down the court as in the plain stroke. 






r 




Plate 41.- -Hukizoxtal FukiiHANu Drive, 



Spalding's Athletic Library. ion 



Plate 41. — Horizontal Forehand Drive. 

This stroke may be played with or without lift. The swing 
back is practically the same as for the forehand drive with 
lift, but in playing this stroke the head of the racket does not 
drop so low as is therein shown. 



Plate 42.— Hokizontal Drivk. Impact. 



Spa/diz/o's Athletic Library. 



Ill 



Plate 42, — Horizontal Drive. Impact. 

The dotted line A B shows the travel of the racket head. 
When the ball is very high the top side of the racket may 
be inclined a little forward. If the stroke is then played 
as shown by A B, the angle of the face imparts top to the 
ball. This return may also be played as a lifting drive if 
desired. In that case the racket must cut up more sharply, 
so that A B would then be at an angle of about 45 degrees 
to the court. 



1 




. ^ 



spa/ding's Athletic Library, 113 



Plate 43. — Horizontal Drive.' Impact. 

This plate is a front view of plate 42. It gives a clear idea 
of the distance from the body at which the ball is taken ; 
there the ball is just going on to the racket. It is taken 
nearly at the full extent of the arm and racket, and with the 
forearm and racket handle in line. The racket is swept right 
across the body nearly at the same height as that at which 
it hits the ball, and the stroke finishes far over to the left 
and about level with the shoulder. If played with lift it 
finishes higher. 




Pl.ATK 44. — FoKKHAM) I)K'1\I-. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 



Plate 44. — Forehand Drive. 

This is one of the most remarkable strokes in the game. It 
is carr\'ing out beyond what I say the practice of having 
arm and racket handle in line. This is the hold Miss Sutton, 
the American lady player, uses. It is hardly possible to get 
any more powerful stroke on the forehand, as this peculiar 
hold enables one to get a direct hit upwards along the dotted 
line. This gives an immense amount of Hft, and causes the ball 
to keep in court in a wonderful manner. As I have alread}' 
indicated, any further development of the forehand drive will 
come from this stroke. I have not seen more than two or three 
players use this stroke. 



Plate 45.— Fukkhand Drive. 



Sj)a/diHi^'s Athletic Library. 



117 



Plate 45. — Forehaxd Drive. 

This is the same stroke as shown in the preceding plate, 
but it is being played on a low ball. The racket will travel 
up the line A B, and the ball flies away down the line C D. 
The racket is turned over at the moment of impact with a 
snap of the wrist. This turn or wrist flick does not roll the 
ball over as many think. It simply causes the racket to 
brush across the ball more quickly, and so imparts to it 
excessive lift. For quick-dropping passing shots on either 
hand this shot is very valuable. 






^"im 




Plate 46.— Fokkhand Drive. F 



Spaldi flip's Athletic Library. 



Plate 46. — Forehand Drive, Finish. 

This is the natural finish of the forehand drive explained in the 
two preceding plates. The body lifts as the stroke is played. 
This also is the natural finish for the forehand horizontal drive if 
the racket be kept about a foot lower. 




C/2 






Spalding's Athletic Library. 121 



THE BACKHAND STROKE. 

Very many players who ought to know better continually 
make this stroke in the wrong position. The right foot should 
be in front ; in fact, the instructions for the forehand stroke 
are practically reversed. The ball is met further from the 
player's body than is the case in the forehand drive. The 
reason for this will be apparent from a study of the photographs 
in this section. No words can possibly explain the correct 
manner of producing this stroke so well as the photographs, so 
I shall deal with the peculiar points of the different shots 
as they appear in the pictures. 



Plate 47. — Backhand Stroke. 

Note position of feet. This is most important in this stroke. 
Observe the weight on left leg and the full swing back of the 
racket, which travels in the dotted line A B to meet the ball 
near B. 



I'LATE 48 —Backhand Stroke, 



Spa/di/ig's. Athletic Library. 123 



Plate 48. — Backhaxd Stroke. 

This is a front view of the stroke in the preceding plate, and 
serves to show clearly the position of the ball laterally with 
relation to the striker. The ball being so much nearer the 
camera than the player, is slightly out of focus. 




Plate 49.— Backhan ) Stroke. Impact. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 125 



Plate 49. — Backhand Stroke. Impact. 

This is a front view of the plain face backhand stroke shown 
in the two preceding plates. Note position of feet, hold of 
racket, and position of arm in relation to racket handle. 




Plate 50. — Backhand Stroke. Impact, 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 127 



Plate 50. — Backhaxd Stroke. Impact. 

This is a side view of the preceding plate showing relative 
position of ball and player longitudinally. This stroke is being 
played naturally without any lift, and the racket head travels as 
shown by dotted line A B. 




Plate 51.- Backhand Drivl. 



Spalding'' s Athletic Library. 129 



Plate 51. — Backhand DrivB. 

This is easily the most important stroke on the backhand. 
Played in all other respects like the plain backhand, the racket 
is drawn sharply up across the ball as shown by the line A B. 
At the same time the elbow is curving up in the line E F and 
the body is straightening. The result of all these motions is that 
this stroke can be made to take a large amount of lift. It is a 
most useful and telling shot, and not, like the English backhand 
stroke, merely a defensive shot. The cut up across the ball is 
generally, if anything, a little more sudden than I have shown it 
in the diagram-photograph. 




Plate 5^— Backhand Dkive, 



Spaldi/ig's Athletic Libraiy 



T31 



Plate 52.— Backhand Drive. 

The follow through from the last stroke shown brings one into 
this constrained position, so that a free and natural finish is 
impossible unless one turns the thumb round so that it goes up 
on top of the racket as shown in the next plate. 




1-^TE 53.— Backhand Drive. Finish 



S/'a/di?ig's Athletic Library. ' 133 



Plate 53. — Backhand Drive. Finish. 

Here it will be seen that the thumb has come round on top of 
the racket, and thus a free and natural finish has been obtained. 
The hold of the racket is not relaxed in any way. The wrist 
simply turns and the finish becomes easy and natural. 




Plate 54. — Horizontal Backhand Drive. 



Spalding's Athletic Library^ 13^ 



Plate 54.— Horizontal Backhand Drive. 

The racket is swung round in the dotted hue and meets the 
ball squarely as shown in the next plate. Note the position of 
the feet. 




Plate 55— Hukizontal Backhand Dhivk. Impact. 



S/>aMij/o's Athletic LWrarv. 



137 



Plate 55. — Horizontal Backhand Drive. Impact. 

The racket here has come round at the same distance from the 
ground all the way. Note racket and arm in same straight line 
as regards force to be produced, although not so otherwise. See 
position of feet and balance of body. 




^ 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 139 



Plate 56. — Horizontal Backhand Drive Finish. 

This is the finish of the stroke in the preceding plate. It is a 
free and natural shot, and great pace can be obtained with it. 




Plate 57.— Enclish Backhand Stroke. 



Spalding's Athletic Library, 141 



Plate 57. — English Backhand Stroke. 

Note the angle between arm and racket, and that the racket is 
coming in underneath the ball to undercut it. This action pro- 
duces' back spin, which is not advisable for a staple stroke. 






1 



A 




Plate 58.— English Backhand Stroke. FimsH. 



Spa/di fig's Athletic Library. 143 



Plate 58. — English Backhand Stroke. Finish. 

The finish here is got from a semicircular mowing action 
which has a marked tendency to throw the player into a cross- 
legged position. This is not by any means an exaggerated 
position. If any one thinks it is, a glance at plates 112 and 113, 
Great Lawn-tenuh Players, will soon undeceive him. It is a 
weak, defensive shot, instead of as it should be, a strong, natural 
winner. 




PLATF 59. — FOKKHAXI) LoH. 



Spa/di?ig^s Athletic Library. 145 



THE LOB. 



Plate 59. — Forehand Lob. 

The lob is a most important stroke, and to play it consistently 
well requires great skill and delicacy of touch. As the staple of 
one's game it is contemptible. In its proper place it is an 
admirable and indispensable stroke. The best and most accurate 
way to lob is to let the ball fall as shown in the plate and then to 
come in under it and toss it up with a straight stroke as shown. 
This gives a perfect direction and also more command of length 
than the round-arm lob so commonly played in England. It is 
a defensive shot, and when in serious trouble, unless you can be 
sure of outlobbing your opponent, you should lob high. It gives 
you more time to get into position, and is, moreover, harder for 
him to smash, as it comes down fast and requires accurate timing. 




Plate 6o.— Backhand Lob. 



Spalding'' s Athletic Library. 147 



Plate 60. — Backhand Lob. 

This stroke may be played with the plain face or with cut from 
A to B. Both strokes are good. Personally, I like the cut lob, 
as one can get a very accurate shot with it, but if the wind is 
blowing from the right-hand side of your court you must lob well 
towards the middle of the court, as otherwise the twist on your 
ball will make it swerve out over the side line. A good back- 
hand drive can be played with this stroke, and the forehand 
drive with the reverse cut from B to A is a good stroke for those 
who cannot play the forehand lifting drive. Notice the position 
of feet and that here I am using the old backhand grip with the 
leather inside my hand ; also observe arm in line with racket. 




Platk 6i.— Thk ChoI'. S\vin(, Back. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 149 



THE CHOP. 



Plate 61. — The Chop. Swing Back. 

The chop is a most useful stroke. There are few, if any, more 
effective returns off a high-bounding ball such as shown in the 
plate. The ball flies low, skims the net, and on striking the 
ground shoots low and fast on account of the backward rotation 
or spin. A good length chop on your opponent's backhand is 
always good to go up on. It is a very tricky stroke to play, and 
the man at the net generally gets a chance to deal with the 
return. 



Plate 62.— The Chop. Impact. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 



151 



Plate 62.— The Chop. Impact. 

This view shows very clearly how the chop is played from the 
position in the preceding plate. The racket travels down the line 
A B, cutting across the ball at C, and producing the flight C D. 
As the racket cuts across the intended line of flight C D, it 
causes the ball to revolve rapidly backwards as shown by the 
arrow under the ball. This is called back spin or backward 
vertical rotation, and is the natural result of every pure chop 
stroke. The chop should not be used as a staple ground stroke, 
although many fine players do so. The forehand lifting drive is 
a superior stroke. 




Pl.ATK O3— P)ACKHAM) CHOP 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 153 



Plate 63. — Backhand Chop. 

This is a stroke never seen in England. The racket comes 
from above the left ear at A, and is chopped smartly down the 
line A B. The action viewed from the side at the moment of 
contact is, so far as regards the face of the racket and the ball, in 
all respects similar to that shown in plate 62. It is a very useful 
shot, particularly for dropping short returns off high balls. This, 
of course, could be done by backhand cut, but in that case one 
has to wait for the ball to drop a little lower, and the stroke is 
not rendered any more certain when it has to be lifted ; also 
time is wasted, and this is important. 




Plate 64.— Forehand Half- Volley. 



SpaMi?ig's Atliktic Library. 155 



THE HALF-VOLLEY. 



Plate 64. — Forehand Half-Volley. 

The great secret of the half-volley is smothering the bound. 
This is especially so in fast balls. Most players hold the face of 
the racket too vertically when making this stroke, consequently 
the ball flies too high. The art in playing this beautiful stroke 
consists in timing it accurately on to the racket at A, and then 
covering its natural tendency to bound upwards with a forwardly 
inclined racket face, so that it is forced to compromise and come 
out from under the racket at the angle shown by the line A B. 
It is essential to watch the ball almost on to your racket — in fact, 
on to it if you can — for this stroke. 




Plate 65.— Backhand Half- Volley, 



Spa/difii^'s Athletic Library, 157 



Plate 65. — Backhaxd Half-Volley. 

The same principle must be observed on the backhand as in 
the forehand half-volley, and where practicable the "covering" 
of the ball should be done as much as possible in a line with the 
spot where one intends to place the ball. The half-volley is a 
beautiful and useful stroke, but against a player who uses much 
rotation it is a very risky one to try, for it is so hard, against a 
man who chops, for instance, to time the ball on to the centre of 
the racket. 



Platk 66.— Backhand Half-Volley. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 159 



Plate 66. — Backhand Half- Volley. 

This plate shows a half-volley played wide from the body. 
Here again it will be seen that the racket is covering the bound 
of the ball. Notice the position of the feet and the grip of the 
racket. The old method of gripping the racket with the leather 
or button in the handle will quite likely come into favour again. 
No hold gives such freedom for wrist action, and without wrist 
work lawn tennis is a very unattractive game. 



Plate 67.— Snapping Backhand Half-Volley, 



Spalding's Athletic Library. i6i 



Plate 67. — Snapping Backhand Half-Volley. 

Here the ball has nearly passed the player, but by a quick 
half-turn he has succeeded in covering it. Note that the right 
foot is still towards the net and the back nearly turned to the net. 
Had the ball been a yard further awa}', it would have been 
necessary to swing the right leg out beyond the left, and to play 
the ball actually with the back towards the net. Some players 
are wonderfully expert in thus snapping backhand half-volleys 
that look almost impossible. 




Plate 68. — The Overhead Volley. Waiting for a Smash. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 163 



THE VOLLEY. 



Plate 68.— The Overhead Volley. Waitixg for a Smash. 

This is a stroke of the utmost importance. To be a first-class 
player one must be good overhead, although certain notable 
exceptions have proved the rule. This position will be seen to be 
similar to that shown for the overhead service. Every service is 
practically an overhead volley, which when played hard is often 
called a smash. Note position of feet, distribution of weight, 
drooped shoulder, body and head well back, and balance of left 
arm. The left arm is as useful to an expert tennis-player for 
balance as it is to the weight-lifter. The side of the racket 
furthest from the net is the side that will hit the ball. The 
reverse overhead cut service and the forehand cut service, 
particularly the latter, make very fine overhead volleys or 
smashes. 




Plate 6().— Ovfkhkad Voi.i.ky or Smash. Impact. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 165 



Plate 69.— Overhead Volley or Smash. Impact. 

Here it will be seen that the weight has been transferred to the 
left foot, and in the act of passing into his stride the player has 
struck the blow with all his weight. This matter of weight 
transference is of the utmost importance. You could not throw 
a cricket-ball far unless you put your weight on to your right leg 
and then hurled it forward on to your left. Neither can you 
smash a ball at lawn tennis very well unless you do the same 
thing. 




Plate jo.—Low Forkhaxd Volley. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 167 



Plate 70. — Low Forehand Volley. 

Notice the position of the feet, which are practically at right 
angles to each other. The ball is caught fairly in the middle of 
the racket — it is not yet in contact with it in the plate — and lifted 
over the net. The face of the racket must naturally be inclined 
backwardly away from the net. Some writers advise playing all 
low volleys with the head of the racket above the wrist. That is 
not advisable, in fact is not practicable in many cases. It would 
certainly be very hard to do it in this case. Of course, nobody 
should ever play a volley underhand that can be dealt with 
overhead. 




Platk 71. — Li»\v Backhand Vollky. 



Spalding's AtJiktic Library. jg^ 



Plate 71. — Low Backhand Volley. 

This stroke is played in a corresponding manner to the low 
forehand volley. It may be played either as a plain ball shot 
with clean follow through, or it may be very accurately played 
by means of the cut shown by the dotted line A B. The forehand 
low volley may also be quite advantageously played with cut. In 
each case the racket travels down the Hne A B and glances 
across the ball, causing it to spin at an angle of about forty 
degrees as it goes over the net. This is not pure chop, of course, 
but approximates more to the forehand or other cut service. In 
fact, a very good service is frequently used by ladies, which is 
produced by the cut A B shown in plate 70. 




Plate 72. — Shout Hold fok Volleying. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. iji 



Plate 72. — Short Hold for Volleying. 

Many volleys, particularly near the net and above the level 
thereof, can be very efficiently dealt with by shortening the hold 
of the racket. It is not advised by writers and is not done by 
many players, but in many cases is unquestionably a great aid. 
Some of the best volleying Mr. N. E, Brookes, the Australian 
champion, ever did, was done with his hand half way up the 
handle. It should not, of course, be carried to excess, but when 
cramped for room there is no objection to trying it. I have no 
hesitation in saying that for net play in doubles it will be found 
very useful. The ball can be placed and cut with great accuracy 
with this stroke. The line A B shows how the cut which drops 
a volley very short may be played. 




I'LATii 73.- Ihl: Lub X'olley. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 173 



Plate 73.— The Lob Volley. 

This is a most useful stroke if both your opponents are close up 
to the net. You do not wait for the ball to hit the ground, but 
play it in the air, as shown in plate 73, and toss it up as shown by 
the dotted line A B, so that it is well clear of the other side's 
rackets yet is low and fast enough to prevent either of them 
getting it by running back. Note position of feet, balance by 
extended arm, flat face of racket so as to get right under the ball, 
and arm in line with racket handle. 



174 S/>a/dings .Athletic Library. 



thp: single game. 

I HAVE already warned the player who wishes to become 
proficient that he must first of all aim at being accurate. 
When he can return and place with a reasonable degree of 
certainty he may start to improve his pace. Many a player 
in endeavouring to bring off electrifying drives sacrifices the 
point, whereas by a well-placed good-length ball of medium 
pace he might have scored outright, or at least have obtained 
such a position at the net as would have enabled him to kill 
the return. 

One must not be too anxious to win off every stroke. It 
mav be that the ball is of such a nature that you cannot 
possiblv, without undue risk, convert it into a winning stroke. 
In that case always go for length and position, and look to 
making vour winning shot on the next return. Strive always 
to make your opponent play the ball so that he is at a dis- 
advantage in making his shot. 

Do not think it is necessary that your returns should just skim 
over the net. If you play for this you will see quite a large 
proportion of them going into the net. Remember that, especially 
with the forehand lifting drive, you may drive quite two feet 
above the net and yet get a good-length fair-paced return. 
Moreover, there is no object in playing too close to the net 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 175 

unless your opponent is there waiting for your return and 
you cannot out-lob him. 

In dealing with singles some writers separate the base-line 
game from the proper game, which is a judicious mixture of 
base-line play with volleying at or as close as possible to 
the net. I shall herein deal only with the proper game, as I 
would sooner recognise as a game playing the whole time from 
the service court than from the base line. The one is the 
complement of the other. Taken together they may make a 
perfect whole ; separate, they are merely halves, or portions of 
the game. There may, of course, be certain great exceptions, 
but even they only prove the soundness of this statement when 
they meet a really first-class man who plays the modern 
game. 

A player should run in on every service that is good enough, 
and, I am almost inclined to add, on many that are not. 
Theoretically it is as wrong to go in on a short, badly placed 
service as it is to follow up a return of a similar nature, but 
in actual practice it frequently pays to take risks and bustle your 
opponent. One should get right up to the net as quickly as 
he can, unless it looks as though he may be out-lobbed. In 
that case he may risk having to play a dropping volley a 
little inside the service line, and not rush up quite so fast nor 
so far as he would on a good ball. I shall deal with the various 
portions of the single game under different headings. The 
service must, of course, be considered first. 

Service. — The various kinds of services have been fully 
illustrated and described. It remains here to deal with them 
from a practical point of view. Do not consistently run in 
on the service unless it is paying you very well to do so. Your 



176 Spa/dirii^'s Athletic Library. 

opponent gets used to it, and it does not worry him so much 
as it will if vou come running in on odd occasions, so that he 
does not know when to expect you. When you liave discovered 
your opponent's weak spot, which is generally his backhand, 
give him every opportunity to practise it, and keep away from 
his strong point. You must not overdo this, however, and when 
you have edged him across the court to cover up his weakness 
whip a sharp one across to his forehand. Have a fixed idea 
or intention in your mind with regard to every service. Know 
that you mean it to deceive or place your opponent at a 
disadvantage on account of something that you will make it 
do bevond the mere fact of hitting it liard into the service 
court, although this in itself and so far as it goes is good — 
and many can't do even that. Let your mind be working 
all the time. Notice how your opponent stands. Coax him in 
on to the centre line, then whip one across suddenly. Hit 
the side line a few times, then smash one down the middle. 
Give him a forehand cut on his backhand, a reverse overhead 
cut on his forehand ; reverse the process, and throw in an 
American or two, or perhaps a solid chop. This sounds almost 
cannibalistic, but with natural holds it is not too much to think 
that the player of the future will have a command of t4iese 
deliveries. Mr. Brookes has them all, and other players can get 
them if they set themselves to learn. The prevalent hold quite 
"rots" the service of most Knglish players. I was much amused 
by a prominent player telling me. before I had fully explained in 
The Field and elsewhere how the American service is produced, 
that it was " no use trying," that no Knglishman could get the 
ser\ice like the Americans. Certainly they cannot until they 
alter their grip, but what an American or any other man can do 



spa/ding's Athletic Library. 177 

an Englishman should go very near to accomplishing ; and as 
English players have now seen an Australian player with a 
better American service than any American, they will perhaps 
take heart of grace and make it their business to acquire this 
valuable means of attack. After a series of cut services, a 
fast straight service right at your man sometimes puts him at 
a disadvantage. 

The Rctitrn of the Service. — The two returns generally used 
arc a side-line drive or a cross-court shot. Your opponent 
will generally be running in, so you must try to make your 
side-line drive clean enough to get by him or else to drop 
your cross court stroke sharp across t"o the side line. The fore- 
hand drive with lift helps you very much here, for it makes 
the ball drop quickly after it has passed the net, and renders it 
very difficult for the player, even if he reaches it, to play an 
effective shot. 

Both in serving and returning, especially in doubles, the value 
of serving down the centre of the court is not generally realised. 
In doubles it practicallv cuts off the telling side-line shot and 
enables the man at the net to wander nearer the middle, while in 
singles its importance is very great. 

Fig. 3 will explain the value of centring a return of the ser- 
vice. Let us suppose a player drives a ball from six or nine feet 
outside the base line — say at C to A or B. The return is almost 
covered by the man at the net M. Of course it is unnecessary 
that the return should only go to the extreme corner. It might 
pitch near the service line, but the lines taken will show the 
principle. If, however, the player is returning the ball from D, it 
is never really over the court until it strikes at A. The striker 
can also play the quick-dropping cross- court shot D E, which is 



B 



K 



do 



r 

r 
r 

I 

T 

r 
/ 
t 

-f— 



M 



4-- 



oc 



Spalding's Athletic Library. lyg 

such a formidable pass, particularly on the backhand, for it can 
be made to drop so close to the net. It will thus be seen that on 
a ball pitched at D the striker has both sides of the court open to 
him. If at any time you are caught out of position, do not hesi- 
tate, but get up to the net with all convenient speed. Of two 
evils it is the less. 

How to Receive the Service. — Generally speaking keep as 
nearly as may be diagonally opposite the server. This may 
not do in some of the cut services, but you must then exer- 
cise your own judgment, always remembering to let the 
service, American or otherwise, break in to you and play it 
on the hand it comes naturally to ; in other words, do not let 
it break across you and play it after it has crossed your 
body. This cannot always be done, but when it can, as in the 
American service, it is the best wav to deal with it. The 
American service swerves from the server to your right and then 
breaks back to 3'our left directly it hits the ground. If you know 
that it is an American, don't mind it swerving away out to the 
right. Stand well clear of it on the left, and when it comes to you 
on the forehand deal with it vigorously. Don't pat it, or the 
work on it will kill your stroke. Hit it hard, preferably with a 
little lift, for that will kill the lift which is already on the service. 
You will remember that all American services are obtained by 
lift or top. Sometimes, of course, you will get a service that is 
only forehand cut and not American, Then you will be left 
lamenting, but that won't happen very often for years to come, 
for it is a rare thing here to see a player with three services, or 
indeed for the matter of that with two. 

When you have played your stroke always make for that part 
of the court which is most exposed. Don't wait to see what 3'our 



i8o Spalduig^s .ItJiktic Library. 

opponent is going to do, but make for the open spot without 
hesitation. This is the soundest of sound advice. I know one 
line active young pkiyer who is always racing about the court hke 
a mountain goat because he waits loo long after he has played 
his shot before he starts for the other place. The odds are at 
'least ten to one in favour of it going as far from you as it can be 
put. Very few players consistently return the ball to the same 
spot, although it is a good thing to do now and again. It is, 
however, important to give your man all the exercise you can and 
to make him play his shots on the run. Never be fixed during a 
rest. Always be moving, or at least standing with knees flexed 
and weight thrown forward so that you can start at once. 

Do not consider it necessary, because your opponent is running 
in at you, to dri\»e at him. In these circumstances soft, quicl.- 
dropping cross-court shots are the deadliest passes. They may 
be used on both backhand and forehand, and are most difficult to 
get to, and if indeed they are reached they are very hard to treat 
with any approach to severity, for the attacking player has to lift 
them up at the end of his run, and he cannot do much with them. 
When in position at the net you should volley sharply across 
court, so as to get away from your opponent as much as possible. 

The Lob. — The lob has been very fully explained by photo- 
diagram and letterpress. Both the lob and the lob volley are 
most useful strokes, and they will get vou out of difficulties 
frequently when no other stroke is available. 

You should always endeavour to anticipate the nature of your 
opponent's return. It is not enough merely to know what he has 
done after he has hit the ball if you can do more. You should 
study his play and the manner in which he makes his shots, so 
that you know what he is going to do. If you can do this — and 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 



i8i 



with most players it is possible— you will save much valuable time 
and also be able to economise your strength considerably. 



THE DOUBLE GAME. 

In the double game there are four methods of returning the 
service in general use : — 

The Side-line Drive. — This consists of playing your stroke so 
that the ball travels nearly parallel with the side line. It requires 
clean and cool execution, for generally the man at the net does 
not leave one too much room in which to pass him. It is quite 
useful to prevent the man opposite you from getting over too 
much to the centre of the net and so cutting off your return. 
With a well-centred service the side-line shot is practically cut 
out and the man at the net may stand much nearer in to the 
centre of the court. I have seen some players go even beyond 
this. One well-known pair sometimes places the server's partner 
in the same half of the court as the server, and the latter, after 
serving down the centre of the court, runs in across the court to 
the place usually occupied by the server's partner. This is a 
very puzzling formation for the striker-out. The value of the 
central service or return has never been fully recognised by lawn- 
tennis writers, but that famous tactician, Mr. E. G. Meers, is 
strongly of opinion that it is a most valuable form of attack. In 
his able and interesting chapter on the advanced tactics of the 
single game contributed to my second work. Great Laivn-tennis 
Players, he clearly shows its value. 

The Cross-court Drii'e.— This is the stroke where the value of 
the lifting drive is seen. No other stroke will give you the 
command of such an acute an^le or so quick-dropping a shot 



1 82 Spa/di?i!^'s Athletic Library. 

as will the drive with Hft, whether on the forehand or the back- 
hand. It may be phiyed quite slowly, and is then a most trying 
return to deal satisfactorily with ; or, if a short, high-bounding 
ball, it can be driven "out of sight" with plenty of "top" on the 
stroke. A good slow chop also makes a line cross-court passing 
shot, but it never gets to the ground so quickly as a lightly 
played forehand stroke with Hft. 

The Centre Drive. — This is perhaps the best and safest return 
in a double. Frequently there will be some doubt as to who 
will take it, and it is thus allowed a free passage ; frequently also 
that same momentary hesitation, even when it is played, causes 
the stroke to be imperfect. Quite often when there is plenty of 
lift on the ball your opponent lets it go, and has the mortification 
of seeing the forward spin bring it down well within the court. 
Then he won't take any more risks, and "goes for everything," 
so that very often you get the benefit of the doubt so far as 
regards your length, and as you are running no risks with side 
lines, you have quite a good chance of scoring. The centre 
drive, especially if the man at the net allows you plenty of room, 
as he not infrequently does by standing too near his side line, is 
a very paying shot, and quite the safest return, particularly for 
a fast drive. 

The Lob. — The lob is, generally speaking, a defensive stroke, 
but if your opponents have the sun in their eyes it is not a bad 
idea to treat them to a few lobs. If when you get into the 
" sunny " court they retaliate, and you find the sun troublesome, 
let the lobs bound and kill them when at the top of their bound 
or at a suitable elevation for the purpose. In lobbing, as in 
nearly every other stroke, except when merely lobbing quickly 
to pass your opponents, you must try to get a good length and 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 183 

keep away from the side lines. A good lob on the side line 
would probably be a good lob six feet inside the court, so don't 
run any unnecessary risks. 

Each player should, unless otherwise arranged, attend to his 
own lobs. If he cannot smash them well he should try to get 
them back with good enough length to go in on, unless his 
opponents are up, as they should be if the lob is " deep " or well 
back to the base line. If they are in position there are two ways 
of playing it. He must either smash it vigorously or reply with 
another lob. In volleying or smashing any lob it is of importance 
that the player should get well under the ball, as shown in the 
plate illustrating the forehand service. If he hits it when it is 
away out in front of him he will almost certainly put it in 
the net. 

The service should be so delivered that the server is practi- 
cally thrown into his stride for the net by the follow through. 
He should lose no time in getting to the net. He must not trot 
up. He must gallop, so that he is in position to play the ball 
downwards instead of having to hit it upwards from about the 
service line. 

The server's partner should stand up quite close to the net for 
the first service, and perhaps for the second ; if there appears to 
be danger of a lob he may retreat a yard or two, but not other- 
wise, for unless you are going to be lobbed the nearer you are 
to the net the better. Always move, or appear to be moving, 
towards the centre of the court, so as to cut off your opponent's 
return. It makes him pull his return more across the court and 
into your partner's hands than he might otherwise do. When 
you are the striker-out try a straight drive at the man at the net 
occasionally. Try to hit him in the middle low down. He is 



184 spa/ding's Athletic Library. 

often caught out of position, for it is an awkward stroke for him 
to make, either forehand or backhand. 

I now have to deal with a very important question of tactics 
in the double game, and that is the position of the striker-out's 
partner. Quite two years ago I indicated that the formation 
adopted in England was the chief blot on English double-play. 
An English player generally stands in the service-court when his 
partner is receiving. I have always condemned this practice. 
Messrs. R. F. and H. L. Doherty were in the habit of doing it. 
I pointed out repeatedly in The Field and elsewhere that when 
one man is striking-out and the other is at or near the net any 
imperfect return by the striker-out either leaves his partner 
absolutely at the mercy of the opposing net player, as he will get 
the ball banged at his feet or it will be placed in the great cross- 
court gap that this formation opens up. 

Messrs. K. F. and H. L. Doherty tried this faulty formation 
when they met the Australian pair, A. W. Dunlop and 
N. E. Brookes, at Queen's Club. Dunlop at the net banged 
everything at R. F. Doherty's feet, and made him look as 
helpless as a kitten. In the end the English champions lost a 
hard-fought match of five sets. As I had always so heartily 
condemned their formation, I drev; attention to this marked 
instance of its weakness, and stated that no pair which adopted 
that position could hope to win against the American players, 
Ward and Wright. In that match, when one of the brothers 
was receiving the other stood on the base line also. This is the 
proper position. Once or twice they tried the old formation, 
promptly paid the inevitable penalty and returned to the proper 
formation. In a hard iive-set match they just managed to win. 
On tlieir old formation they would have been hopelessly beaten. 



S/nhling's Athletic Libraiy. 185 

It may therefore be taken as settled tactics that the proper 
position for tlie striker-out's partner is on or near the base line 
in his own half-court and nearh- in a line with the striker-out. 

When the return of the striker-out justifies it they must both 
go in together, still in line and still the same distance apart from 
each other, so as to cover as much of the court as possible. 
This is quite an important point. I never had any doubt of the 
faultiness of the formation, and until I came to England I rarely 
saw it used by first-class players. 

MIXED DOUBLES. 

Lady players are improving so much in their volleying that 
before long it may be unnecessary to devote a special chapter to 
this game, for when they have reached a certain state of expert- 
ness the rules laid down for men's doubles will govern the play 
in this class of matches. This is what every lady should aim at. 
She should, if her strength and activity are equal to the strain, 
try to play the game like a man. She probably won't quite 
succeed, but she will play better than if she sets out with the idea 
that she is a mere woman and that the man has to do all the 
work and make the winning strokes. 

As the game is now played the lady nearly always plays in 
the forehand court and on the base line, and the man at the net. 
This is the accepted formation, but it has often seemed to me 
that it is open to improvement. I have frequently put my 
partner, if she is not too bad on the backhand, on the left side of 
the court. She can always stand wide, and so to a great extent 
cover her backhand. In a mixed, the man always thinks before 
he has played his stroke that he can win that particular rest. 
Of course he cannot count on it, but that doesn't matter. The 



1 86 Spa/din;^' s A f hie fie Library, 

opposing lady frequently has something of the same idea in her 
mind, and not infrequently the man does win his shot. His 
partner is then playing her shot knowing if she does miss it that 
it will only bring them level again, and she does not feel the 
responsibility so greatly as she will if she knows that missing her 
shot will give the other side the lead. For instance, at deuce, 
when she is playing from the forehand corner, she knows that if 
she misses her shot her opponents have secured a great 
advantage. On the other hand, if she is in the left court and 
her partner has won the last point, she will go for her shot with 
much greater nerve, knowing that it means a win or simply 
bringing it back to the man again to secure the lead. I do not 
really say that there is any particular advantage to be gained in 
changing from the present method, but the idea is quite worthy 
of consideration. In favour of the present formation it must be 
borne in mind that the lady has three good shots open to her, 
namely, the side-hne drive, the cross-court drive, or slow-pass^ 
and all of them on the forehand. There will have to be solid 
practical advantages in the suggested position to counteract 
these, but for some pairs those advantages do exist, and if the 
lady is very good on the backliand the formation is well worth 
trying. 

While the man is serving, his partner, unless she is a good 
volleyer, must stand a little outside the base line and not very 
far from her corner of the court. The man should always follow 
up his service unless it is quite too bad to go in on, and this, of 
course, occasionally happens with the best of players. In a 
mixed double the man should hit everything he can reach on 
the volley, and he should try to reach everything on the volley. 
In that sentence is sunamcd up practically the wh(^lc of man's 



Spalding^ s Athletic Library. 187 

duty to woman — in a mixed double. He must dart across and 
cut off the lady's return every time he can. This makes her seek 
for the side lines, and frequently she goes over them, especially 
if just as she is making her stroke she sees the man darting 
across to intercept her return. Unless the lady tries a side-line 
pass, which she will only do now and again, or a lob which she 
considers infra dig. as a regulation shot, she has practically 
nothing left but the cross-court shot. Now as the man at the 
net is always hunting her returns as wide across court as he can 
make her put them, it follows that generally after her service the 
lady, if she is still playing from the base line, may " spread out " 
to at least the corner of the court, and probably beyond, for the 
man at the net can cover a very wide angle and force the 
opposing lady to play so sharply across court that her return 
will frequently drop somewhere near the service line. If the 
server gives her some well-centred good-length services it will 
increase her difficulty in avoiding the man at the net. 

The man must stand in near the net while the lady is serving. 
He must always be so close as to enable him by one or two 
steps to get near enough to the net to play the ball on the 
volley before it has begun to drop, and he must be equally 
ready to chase the lob if it is played over his head, unless he 
has any arrangement with his partner that she shall take the 
lobs and that they shall change sides until the end of the rest 
or until another lob comes along. 

While her partner is receiving the service the lady must 
always stand back with him, on or behind the base line. No 
matter how well she volleys, it would be perfectly futile for 
her to take up the position generally assumed by an English 
player in men's double while his partner is receiving. This for 



1 88 S/>a/di?i^ii's Athletic Library. 

cither men or ladies is, ai^ainst those wlio know the game, only 
the position to lose from. 

The man should take great risks in a mixed. The lady dearlv 
loves to pass him, and gets more satisfaction out of doing that 
once than she does from winning legitimately off the opposing 
lady five times ; hut she has the fear of him all the time in her 
mind, so tiiat generally she wisely tries to keep well away from 
him and get to the lady. Knowing this, he should run in well 
to the lady's side of the court, and on every occasion during 
a rest when he has seen the shot decided on and the racket 
half-way through the stroke he should charge across even unto 
the single side lines and cut off the return. The moral effect 
of his continued activity and ubiquitous interference is a 
ver}^ great factor in determining the level of the opposing lady's 
play. A good man can in a mixed double quite unsettle a 
lady pla3'cr's game unless she is very cool and skilful. Of course, 
now and again the interfering man will get passed on his 
exposed side, but it is a question of average, and he must work 
it out for himself, and see how many rests he wins for those 
he throws away by bearing to one side of the court ; also, of 
course, he must not do it all the iimc, as any tactics that become 
stereotyped lose a great deal of their value. More than half 
the art in playing lawn tennis lies in concealing your intention 
and the nature of your stroke. 

One of the best shots a lady can play to escape the man's 
attentions is a diagonal or cross-court lob. I say cross-court 
because a low cross-court lob will be much more out of his 
reach than if you try to put a lob of the same height straight 
over him, for he has to run across and get under it before he 
can reach it. Tliis is what makes a low lob down the side line 



Spaldi/ig's Athletic Library. 189 

such a fine passing shot. If it were at the height of your oppo- 
nent's shoulder he would perhaps be able to step out and reach 
it, but if it were a low lob over exactly the same place he would 
have to come across right under it and strike up for it. There 
is a wonderful difference, too little appreciated by players, 
between these two things. 

Some services nearly always worry ladies very much. They 
never seem able to understand which way the}'^ will jump. In 
all ordinary cut services such as the fore underhand cut, the 
overhead forehand cut, and the reverse overhead cut, the ball 
breaks the opposite way to that in which the racket passes 
across it, so that in the underhand cut, for instance, the racket 
cuts across the ball from right to left, and the ball breaks from 
lelt to right ; bul: in the American services which are produced 
by lift or upward cut the ball always breaks the same way as 
the racket goes through the air. These are infallible rules, 
and should be of assistance to those players who are puzzled, 
and few are not, by the bound of the American service. 

LADIES' SINGLES. 

This is not a game by itself. The highest development of it 
must naturally be the nearest approximation to the standard set 
by the men. There are practically no general rules that can be 
laid down for lady players who desire to excel at singles that are 
not already stated in the chapter on the single game. Many will 
find running in on their service all the time much too tiring. 
They must therefore choose their occasions all the more dis- 
creetly. This remark also applies with equal force in regard 
to attacking at the net. The lady player must choose her 
opportunity for going up with judgment so as to spare herself 



190 Spa/di?ig^s Athletic Library. 

as much as possible, and above everything she must not be 
discouraged at losing the shot, particularly if she is convinced 
she was right in going up. For a long time, if necessary, she 
must be satisfied to say, "Well, it certainly was my rest if I had 
played that shot right. I ought to have won it, but I didn't play 
the stroke properly. Never mind ; / was in the right place, and 
I'll have another try at it directly I get a chance." If volleying 
is taken on in this spirit any lady with a good eye will soon 
improve wonderfully, but slie must always remember to hold 
her racket firmly and to hit the hall with it, not to wait for the ball 
to hit the racket. 

It is important for all players to try to get a good idea of the 
angles of the court. A player should be able to tell when he 
sees a ball coming at him exactly where it will pitch if he leaves 
it alone. Few are very good at this, and the consequence is that 
many a ball that is going out is played, and many a ball is not 
played that afterwards drops well within the boundaries of the 
court. This is a matter worthy of the most careful study on the 
part of any one who desires to play a really scientific game of 
lawn tennis. 

LADIES' DOUBLES. 

There is practically nothing in connection with the ladies' 
double game that may not be found in the chapter on " The 
Double Game." It will be observed that in neither case have I 
labelled the games " Men's," for, as a matter of fact, the men have 
no special monopoly of them. 

A lady's double as it is sometimes played, where all four 
players wander round the base line and uidulge in interminable 
rests of semi-lobs, to the distraction of the unfortunate umpire 
and the clearance of the pavilion seats, is fortunately almost a 



spa/ding^ s Athletic Library. 191 

thing of the past. Nearly always there will be one or two of the 
ladies who are able to volley, and this enlivens matters very much. 
If both of the ladies can volley, then a ladies' double must be 
played as much like the double game as they can play it. If only 
one of a pair can volley, that pair must play a mixed double game. 
If neither of the players can volley, my advice is to go and learn 
without delay, for in that case she is only toying with a portion 
of the game and missing the most beautiful part of it. 

TOURNAMENT PLAY. 

Equanimity is one of the most important qualities for a tourna- 
ment player to possess. There is nearly always trouble in getting 
umpires, and many who volunteer are more willing than able. 
Consequently the player frequently has to put up with the most 
annoying and foolish decisions both as to law and fact, and if he 
allows these to annoy and upset him he is taking upon himself an 
extra handicap. 

It is advisable before any match to have a " knock up " for five 
or ten minutes, so that you do not start until your limbs are easy 
and you have " got your eye in." 

Never ease up in a match. It is very often quite difficult to 
recover yourself. No matter how poor your opponent is, if you 
want to win beat him while you can, and as well as you can. 
The effect of easing up is twofold. Firstly, you go off your game, 
and probably cannot get going again just when you want to, and 
your opponent gets "heartened up" and comes at you with 
renewed vigour and hope ; moreover, you may have to play 
another and stiffer match soon after, and you will perhaps 
find that you are suffering from the effects of your slack play. 
Particularly at lawn tennis the game is to win while you can. 



192 S/^a/duii^'s Athletic Library. 

Some very marvellous recoveries have been made at lawn 
tennis. Men who wanted but one stroke to win the champion- 
ship of England have lost that stroke — and the championship. 
Remember this. It may come into your mind when you want 
comfort. Remember, the game is never won so long as there is 
a rest to be played. Always keep in mind the fact that if you are 
feeling absolutely done it is very probable that the other fellow 
is as bad, if not worse. 

Always get a look at the play of the man you are going to meet 
unless you know his game. This will often save you valuable 
time on the court, for you have been able in cold blood to consider 
his plav and form certain conclusions which you go into court 
prepared to experiment with. If they are not right, you must 
find others. Weigh carefully anything any one of experience 
may say to you between sets, as it is very true that tlie onlooker 
sees most of the game. 

If you want any stimulant, take a little coca wine, some whisky 
and water, or any other thing of a similar nature that you are in 
the habit of using. Do not however drink during a match 
unless you are very thirsty, and then take as little as you can. 
You should always endeavour to regulate your meals so that you 
have not to play for half an hour to an hour afterwards. If you 
are playing a very protracted match long after a meal, it is not 
unwise to take a little chocolate or a biscuit. It is frequently 
worth more than alcohol. 

PRACTICE AND TRAINING. 

My own opinion about training for lawn tennis is that a player 
should live much the same life as he generally does. I do not think 
there is any necessity for any special dieting. Some men win on 



Spalding's Athkfic Library. 193 

vegetables and patent biscuits, and bore your life out telling 
you about it ; others win on half -raw steaks and plenty of ale 
with a copious supply of eggs thrown in. A judicious blend of 
these two " systems " is probably what will be found to answer 
best. 

If you are inclined to put on flesh, avoid all fatty and sugary 
substances and do not drink too much, especially at your meals. 
If it agrees with you, a glass of ale at luncheon is good food. I 
use the word *' food " advisedly. At last championship I was 
particularly struck by the want of snap and life in the work of 
some members of the American team. There was a quite 
unaccountable listlessness in their play. I was horrified when I 
heard that "John Barleycorn" had been shut off completely. 
Training as they do, I think a glass of ale every day, and " when 
they feel like it " a good bottle of wine, would do them far more 
good than otherwise — but one must not " feel like it " too often. 

It is important when training for big matches to get all the 
work possible against good men. The amount to be taken 
depends very much on the man. Some men would get "stale" 
on what would be gentle exercise for others. So much depends 
on a man's habit of body and his constitution that it is impossible 
to lay down any general rules. Each case must be taken on its 
own circumstances and with due consideration for the idiosyn- 
crasies of the subject both as to work and diet if one would do the 
best with his men. Training a body of men as one man is in 
many cases simply courting failure. Soda-water may suit one 
man perfectly, but to most men in training it would be as bad as 
medicine. I am not a brewer's advocate, but my own experience 
and that of many others is that in moderation ale is beneficial. 
So with work, where one man will play five sets every day and 

G 



194 Spa/ding's Athletic Library. 

revel in it another will find three sets three or four times a week 
quite enough. 

If you iind your wind is not good I should advise sharp, fast ' 
walks of two or three miles, finishing up nearing home with a 
quarter-mile spin, then a rub down and a shower. For a man 
who is in fairlv good fettle much training will not be required for 
the ordinary best-of-three-sets match, but it is another thing if he ' 
has to contest a hard five-set championship match on a trying 
day. Then he wants to be as fit as hands and ale and wine and j 
anything else that suits him can make him. If possible he should ( 
have a trainer to look after him, for there is no more severe task ! 
in the world of games than that I have just referred to, and unless ( 
a man is perfectly fit he runs great risk of overstraining himself. 

I do not think vou should smoke much while training. It does 
not seem to trouble some men, but generally speaking it is, I 
think, bad, especially if you inhale the smoke. , 

You should, of course, avoid late hours and all undue excitement, j 
Generally speaking a man will do quite well in training who leads i 
a moderate, healthy life and takes all the work he can without j 
inducing slackness. I have no time for the fanatics who measure '■- 
out the proteids and carbo-hydrates, and the number of bacilli 
a man should assimilate every seventy-six and three-quarter j 
minutes. Moderation and natural conditions, fresh air and 
plenty of work and sleep, are of practical importance. j 

When practising, stop playing directly you lose interest in the ! 
game. Do not go on playing slackly. When you cease to be 
keen it is time to stop and take a walk or a rest, as you feel 
inclined. I do not necessarily mean mentally inclined, for you \ 
may be lazv, but if you feel that you need the rest and not the j 
walk, the rest's the thing, and vice versa. I 



Spalding^ s Athletic Library. 195 

Practise your strokes assiduously, particularly those you are 
most deficient in. If you can get any one to toss you up some 
lobs, smash thirty or forty every day from all parts of the court. 
Get right under them and flmg yourself at them. Don't leave 
your arm to do the work, for by itself it cannot do it properly. 
Step on to your smash, so that you may put it away to the best 
advantage. 

Practise all the services — forehand cut, reverse cut, and both 
Americans — always so that you may have these for a change from 
the plain fast service or the ordinary lifting service, which I shall 
refer to hereafter. 

Then try some half-volleys, always remembering to cover the 
bound of the ball. Let the ball pass you, swing round, and see 
how far past you it is possible to snap a backhand half-volley. 
You should rarely, if ever, play a half-volley if by getting to it you 
can convert it into a volley. Two sound maxims, in play or in 
practice, are : " Never let a ball hit the ground if you can play a 
fair stroke off it on the volley," and " Never play a ball underhand 
if you can treat it as an overhead volley." The soundness of 
these maxims is obvious. In both cases you save time. This is 
" of the essence of the contract," as the lawyers say, in volleying ; 
also in each case the stroke mentioned as preferable is more 
certain than its rival. These two points are much neglected^ 
particularly by English players, who constantly return weak 
half-volleys because they will not go up and make them into 
volleys, and who in many cases deliberately wait and play the ball 
as a low volley instead of jumping in under it and killing it. 

Play as many different styles of players, particularly as regards 
service, as you can. This is very important, as you thus become 
accustomed to all classes of deliveries. Most men run in a lot 



196 Spalding'* s Athletic Library. 

nowadays. Always have one good steady old base-liner once a 
week if you can get him. This is quite an important matter, and 
I must tell you the reason. You will lind that the persistent 
rusher ruins your length. You have nothing to think of but 
passing him, and most of your shots, as a matter of fact, are 
quick-dropping cross-court strokes, or side-line shots, without 
any length. If you then take on a good player who mixes his 
game well — that is, combines base-line play with judicious 
attacking at the net — you will find, to your great disgust, that your 
length is entirely gone. The length of the English players, 
except one or two fine base-line players, is from this cause very 
poor indeed. As a matter of fact, the ladies who have to rely on 
their length to a great extent, and are not, generally speaking, 
worried by being attacked at the net in singles, particularly on 
the return of service, are infinitely better than the men in this 
important branch of the game. Their good length is as 
remarkable as is the men's bad length. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF LAWN TENNIS. 

Few people realise the high place that lawn tennis already 
occupies in the games of the world. It may already quite fairly 
be styled the most international of games. I give here by 
courtesy of the proprietors of that famous sporting paper, The 
Field, an article which it was my privilege to contribute to its 
columns, and which has since been reprinted in almost every 
place where lawn tennis is played. 

From The Field of January 21, 1905 : — 

The Importance of Lawx Texxis. 

" There are many who thoroughly appreciate the value of 
lawn tennis both as mental and physical training, but these, I am 



Spalding^ s Athletic Library, 197 

afraid, form but a small minority. Lawn tennis is a game which 
calls for many of the highest quahties which a man should 
possess. To excel at it one must have courage, stamina, strength 
tempered with restraint, equanimity under adverse circum- 
stances, quickness of eye and mind to see and decide, and of 
body and limbs to execute. 

" In this game there is required considerable strength to drive, 
serve, and smash, but this must be accompanied with sufficient 
restraint to keep the ball within proper limits. At golf the 
player has a stationary ball to think about and settle himself 
down to comfortably, ere he plays his stroke, and his opponent 
does not stand in front of him, with extended club and doing his 
best to intercept and ruin his shot ; but at lawn tennis the player 
not only has to put up with this, but he must frequently play his 
ball on the run ; as he runs he must rapidly pass in review in his 
mind how that ball left his opponent's racket, what it is doing in 
the air, what it will do when it hits the ground, and he must also 
from his opponent's actions make up his mind what the latter is 
going to do to try to spoil the effectiveness of his return, for in 
lawn tennis it is the duty of every self-respecting player, directly 
he has made a good stroke, to get into such a position at the net 
or elsewhere as to be able to cover as much of the court as 
possible, and so spoil his opponent's return. In this respect 
lawn-tennis singles differ materially from most games, for the 
players are in direct personal and individual conflict, with the 
same ball as the medium of strife. In golf the player's good or 
bad play does not in any way affect the position of his opponent's 
ball, except now and again by a stymie. 

"It differs also from tennis, fives, and similar games in 
that the ball is continually bounding beyond the court, and 



198 S/>(i/(//j/^i;'s Allilt'tic Library. 

thereby causing inucli running, whereas in the other games the 
ball bounds off the walls into the court ; and on account of this 
I think the game calls for more refinement of strength than do 
the indoor games. To have a severe drive a man must put some 
strength into his work, but he must know how to regulate that 
strength, or it will be useless to him. 

"At cricket a player knows that to be dangerous a ball has to 
pitch within a very limited area as to length and width, and he is 
alwi\ys ready and waiting in the best place to meet tiie delivery. 
It is not so in lawn tennis. The player has a wide area wherein 
he may place the ball, and he naturally endeavours to put it as 
far away from the opposing player as he can. The ball must 
thus be played while the striker-out is running, and it stands to 
reason that this cannot be so accurately done as when one is 
standing still and waiting for the ball. 

" It must be apparent to the ordinary observer that the 
tendency of British sport is to make for solidity and soundness, 
instead of brilliancy. I always think there should be a greater 
leaven of brilliancy in our sport than there is. Other nations 
have it, and we should. No impartial critic will attempt to deny 
that much of our cricket is of such a nature that it scarcely 
serves to keep one awake on a warm afternoon after a good 
lunch. On the other hand, I have seen matches, such as the last 
Gentlemen and Players, which made one sit up and look round. 

" I have followed sport in many countries, and everywhere the 
same thing has been borne in upon me. The tendency of 
British sport is not to encourage prompt thought and dashing 
execution, yet it should be. What the boy is in play he 
frequently is in work. ^Slake him quick and alert in his play, 
and it is quite a chance the ciiaracteristic will enter into his 



Spaldini^'s Athletic Libra 



199 



everyday life. Lawn tennis, I have been told, is actually 
forbidden in some schools, lest it should interfere with cricket. 
I cannot believe that it is so, but if it is I say without hesitation 
that it is ill-considered and unsportsmanlike to do such a thing. 
Cricket should require no such pampering. It is good enough 
in itself if played with a little more dash and a little more 
intellect in the bowling ; but I am afraid that much of our 
bowling is sadly mechanical, even as is the service in lawn 
tennis. 

" There is no game where a man's individuality has such scope 
as in lawn tennis. He enters the court on a broiling summer's 
day, faces his opponent, and knows that he may be in for three 
or four hours of the most gruelling work in athletics, for there is 
no game which makes such a call on one's endurance as a hard 
five-set match on a hot day. He may be playing a man 
personally distasteful to him ; he is in personal conflict with 
him all the time ; his best shots are snapped up at the net and 
spoiled ; he has no sense of divided responsibility as in a double, 
or when he is a member'of a team of cricketers. He must call 
up all his resources and realise that it is he, and he alone, who 
must by his quickness of thought and action strive to come out 
on the winning side. Then again there is the great scope which 
is open to the scientific player who understands what can be 
done by rotation of the ball. The full comprehension of this 
and the ability, by means of it, to play on an opponent's 
weaknesses or neutralise his strength, will open up a new 
era in the game. 

" I cannot truthfully say that lawn tennis as played in England 
now inculcates all this, but I know it will do so before many 
years, when it has taken its proper place amongst games, and 



200 



Spa/ding's Athletic Library. 



few appjirently even amongst lawn-tennis players have ever 
given a thought as to what that place is. I venture to predict 
that it is of the highest, for not only will the proper game of 
modern lawn tennis develop in the youth of the nation many 
desirable qualities of physical and mental dash, for which as a 
nation we are not at present famous, steadiness and solidity 
being more our pride, but it will be found that it will take a very 
high place amongst the nations of the world. 

"Already the game, as played in England, is played in Russia, 
Germany, Norway and Sweden, France, America, India, Austra- 
lasia, and all British colonies, besides many lands which I have 
not mentioned. Of what other game can this be said ? Lawn 
tennis is even now perhaps the ' most international game.' I 
want lawn-tennis players to realise the dignity of the game, the 
beauty that is in it when played as they can play it an they will, 
and then they will see to it that lawn tennis takes its proper 
place. 

" Some years ago at the Antipodes I inaugurated a boys' and a 
girls' championship. I was much surprised and pleased to see 
what great interest was taken in the event. I think if the same 
were done here, and the event contined to singles for those in 
their teens, the effect on the game could not be other than good. 
It might be held immediately after the men's championship, and 
the intense rivalry which would exist to be boy or girl champion 
of England would carry interest in the game into the family, and 
lead to the tennis lawn being seen in private grounds more often 
than it is, and to one who knows how to use and appreciate it 
there is no more charming or healthful adjunct to a home than 
the tennis lawn. Many years ago there was something done in 
the way of a boys' championship, but I cannot remember that 



Spalding^s Athletic Library. 201 

the two events were attended to, nor do I think any serious 
effort was made to render the event a permanent fixture. 

"One of the chief causes of our gracious King's great popularity 
is the fact that he is an ardent sportsman, and I feel sure, were 
the facts of the case as regards lawn tennis put before him by 
the proper authorities, that it would not be long before our 
delightful meetings at Wimbledon would be graced by the 
presence of Royalty, and the patronage thus accorded would do 
much to make the game speedily more popular and remove some 
of the disabilities under which it suffers now. There is no finer 
game for Young England, and in these days, when the cry of 
physical deterioration is resounding throughout the land, every 
park and common should have its lawn-tennis courts, and the 
game should be encouraged as much as possible. So should we 
make of our growing youth healthier and more active and alert 
men and women in every way. The Prince of Wales is the 
President of the Hockey Association. I think we can at least 
claim that lawn tennis is as worthy of encouragement as hockey. 

" I commend this matter to those who should move in it, and 
if I or my pen can be of any assistance I shall be always ready. 
This is with me no fad, for although I love lawn tennis as it 
deserves to be loved, I have played nearly every game that is to 
be played, and do not, as do so many, think there is only one 
game." 

* * * 

There can be no doubt that as a game for the English people 
lawn tennis, or even baseball, is preferable to cricket as at present 
played. If I were to go out and play a man lawn tennis for 
three days under such conditions as made it impossible for me 
at the end of this awful period to say definitely who was the 



202 Sf'a/(h';i!^^s Alhktic Library. 

better mail, I ^Iioulcl know my proper place was — well, let us say 
elsewhere. 

The conditions under which cricket is now played are dull, 
antediluvian, and soporific. They arc not calculated to exercise 
either the mind or the body overmuch, and what with boundary 
hits, short overs, long adjournments, and the theory of bowling 
at anything ratlier than the wicket, the game is degenerating into 
a rather mournful farce. This should not be. It is a grand 
game, and if taken in hand and modernised — and this can be 
done without interfering with its hoary old traditions— it will 
regain its hold on the public ; but it is drifting now, and unless 
something is done to enliven the game the day is not far distant 
when it will cease to be our national sport. 

Last year there was formed in London an association which 
is, I believe, destined to have an important influence on the 
future of lawn tennis. It is called The South London School- 
girls' Lawn-tennis Association. I was present at the first 
championship of this Association, and hope to be present at 
many more, for this is a move in the right direction. Soon, I 
have no doubt, there will spring up other associations of a similar 
kind, and they will not be confined to the girls. These will in 
due course have their governing body, and they will be a 
valuable recruiting-ground from which we may replenish the 
attenuated ranks of our first-class players. 

While on the subject of the importance of lawn tennis I 
cannot pass without mention the attitude of the public schools 
towards this grand game, the game of all outdoor games 
that gives greatest scope for individualitv, resourcefulness, and 
quickness of decision — all qualities not too strongly in evidence 
in the average public-school boy. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 203 

It seems almost incredible, yet it is the fact, that in these 
schools lawn tennis is barred because the authorities are afraid 
it will oust cricket. They evidently, at least, have a fair idea 
of the respective merits of the two games. Another way it is 
put is that lawn tennis is too much of a game where one goes 
" on his own," and does not therefore call for that spirit of 
comradeship that the cricket club does. How much there 
is in this any one who has ever played, or even seen played, 
a decent double gam6 will know. It is merely another instance 
of that stupendously crass ignorance which dominates the 
education of England, an ignorance which prompts men to 
force down the youth's mental oesophagus stale pabulum that 
merely cumbers his cerebral digestion while at the same time 
they deny him access to much that would brighten and tune up 
his mind and make him in every way a better sportsman and 
a brighter fellow. Plain talking this, and I struggled hard to 
keep my metaphor unmixed, but the truth is that both on the 
mental and the phvsical sides in English public-school life there 
are some perfectly delightful festoons of mouldy cobwebs. 
"Dirty Dick's" fortune would be made if he could get them. 
I might perhaps draw the attention of those who are responsible 
for this unsportsmanlike treatment of a fine game to the fact 
that lawn tennis has not yet ruined university cricket. 

We now have the board schools playing lawn tennis, the 
universities are quite keen about it, it is most popular with 
the public, and it is barred by the public schools. 

I have always been surprised at the relatively small share of 
attention that the game gets from the press. This, I am 
pleased to say, has not been so bad of late years. It is quite 
a revelation to any one who thinks lawn-tennis players form 



204 Spalding's Athletic Library. 

a small class to go round the manufactories of the great racket- 
making firms and see the tens of thousands of rackets that are 
being turned out. Secretaries of tournaments and all who have 
the interest of the game at heart should make it their business 
to see that all matters of interest in connection with the game 
are duly handed to the press, for that is the way that even a 
vigorously growing game like lawn tennis must be assisted 
if it is to take its proper place. 

ENGLISH, AMERICAN, AND AUSTRALASIAN LAWN 
TENNIS COMPARED. 

In Modern Lawn Tennis, published during the All England 
Championship meeting of 1904, I very clearly and forcibly drew 
attention to what I considered the defects in English play, 
and said plainly that I considered Australian lawn tennis quite 
equal, if not indeed superior, to English. I clearly stated that in 
mv opinion Australia could produce players to beat the present 
holders of the doubles championship of the world, and that in 
singles they were fully equal. This, of course, was considered to 
be mere vapouring by those whose experience of the game was 
limited. 

Since then the Australian pair, A. W. Dunlop and N. E. 
Brookes, have in a genuine hard-fought match which ran into five 
sets defeated Messrs. R. F. and H. L. Doherty, and Mr. N. E. 
Brookes has defeated Mr. H. L. Doherty. 

I also in that book, unwarrantably some thought, dealt plainly 
with what I considered the defects in Mr. H. L. Doherty's game, 
and showed how he would be defeated by a man who "got 
down " to his weak points. Since then Mr. M. J. G. Ritchie, who 
by the way I said might, if possessed of greater equanimity, 



Spalding's Athletic Library, 205 

easily be classed " Ai at Lloyd's," nearly defeated the champion 
in a desperate five-set match, and subsequently in another hard 
five-set match, wherein I saw some of the most brilliant lawn 
tennis I have ever seen, he did fairly and squarely defeat him. 

I am mentioning these matters here as many who read this 
book will not have seen my other works on the game, and it will 
save many such the pain of thinking that I am merely a ruthless 
iconoclast whose mission it is to smash up national idols. My 
mission in this little matter is to spread a knowledge of the 
strokes and science of lawn tennis, and it is of importance that 
those whom I now address should know that one year after I had 
dealt with these matters and enunciated the, at that time, revolu- 
tionary doctrine of the value of rotation of the ball, practically 
everything that I had foretold was demonstrated in a remarkable 
and conclusive manner. 

It was not remarkable that it should be demonstrated. That 
I knew to be inevitable, for I was only expounding the game as it 
had come to me from its home, England, and as I had played it 
and loved it for a score of years ; as it was played and improved 
in America, Australia, and New Zealand, while here in its home it 
has gone back, its standard has deteriorated, its strokes become 
feeble by comparison with the natural strong shots of old. The 
very remarkable, and for lawn tennis in England beneficial, thing 
was that my doctrine should have been proved sound so quickly 
and so conclusively, for this happened at the very next meeting. 

Then it was seen that not a single visiting player of any 
importance used the English hold which I have always so severely 
condemned. There also was demonstrated the fact I have always 
insisted on, that the most important strokes in modern lawn tennis 
are played with cut, as for instance that king of ground strokes 



2o6 spa /ding's Athletic Library, 

the forehand lifting drive, the American services, the reverse 
overhead service, and the useful chop so freely — perhaps too 
freely — used by the American players. 

There also was conclusively demonstrated the fallacy of the 
striker-out's partner standing in at the net in doubles, which I 
have always called the greatest blot in English doubles, and many 
minor points which yet have an important bearing on the game. 

Now you may call this a pajan of self-glorification, or an 
exaggerated "I told you so," or anything you like. That won't 
trouble me. The line of demarcation between true modesty and 
colossal egotism is so very ill-defined that sometimes it is hard to 
tell where one's feet are, but for your information I may say that 
about one and three-quarters of my pedal extremities are on the 
side of modesty this time, for the personal element to me is 
nothing so long as I emphasise the facts in such a manner as to 
make you remember them, take notice of what I am saying now, 
and — this is for P^nglish readers — alicr your game while yet there 
is time ; also you must remember tliat for a year I bore with 
equanimity — nay, indeed with urbanity — many futile jokes on the 
subject of the rotation of the ball, for I knew full well where the 
joke would be when it was all over ; and now jokes about the 
rotation of the ball are as extinct as the dodo, and in their place 
is with some a genuine thirst for knowledge, with others despair 
because they cannot, or think they cannot, alter their hold of 
the racket. 

The outstanding feature of the 1905 tournament was the 
success of Mr. N. E. Brookes, the Australian player. His progress 
through the week was a wonderful object-lesson to English 
players on the futility of the English game when opposed to a 
first-class man with modern methods. Such men as Escombe. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 207 

Caridia, Riseley, Gore, and Hillyard went down to him without 
really extending the Australian. Then in the final of the All- 
comers' Plate he had to meet that sterling player S. H. Smith. 

Brookes' great service had no terrors for Smith, although he 
was bothered with it now and again ; neither, for the matter of 
that, had Holcombe Ward's. Many were surprised how well Smith 
negotiated the deliveries of these two players, which proved so 
puzzling to other first-class men. The explanation is very 
simple. He played them as he does everything else. He stood 
off them and allowed them to break to him. They got up high. 
He hit them as he does nearly everything else, very hard. His 
racket was not very tightly strung. Quite naturally he was doing 
everything right, and it nearly came off in both matches. In 
Great Lawn-tennis Players I have fully explained this method of 
returning the American service. So far as I can remember the 
score was 2 sets all 4-2 in Smith's favour when Brookes made a 
great effort and pulled the match out of the fire. Since then 
he has amply demonstrated his superiority over this famous 
player. 

Smith then was the only English player to extend Brookes, and 
the Australian had every one except Smith in trouble all the 
time, yet Brookes did not win a single match against an 
American. As a matter of fact he should have beaten Beals 
Wright, who is now the American champion, twice, and but for 
his weak overhead work would have done so, but he didn't. 

The fact is that the Australian, New Zealand, and American 
game consists of practically the same strokes, or at least the strokes 
are produced on the same principles, so that in playing the 
Australian the Americans were not at such a disadvantage as the 
Englishmen were. Another important point which militated 



2o8 Spalding^s Athletic Library. 

against most of the K^nglisli players was the fact that although 
Brookes' service has more spin on it than ahnost any American 
the Enghsh phiycr ahnost invariably attempted to play it too 
softly. The spin thus had a chance to work on the very 
tightly strung English rackets, and" the accuracy of the return 
was sufficiently affected for the dashing Australian player to 
reach it and score. Being a left-handed player made his service 
particularly awkward, for his ordinary American service is of 
course a right-handed player's reverse. His forehand cut service, 
for a similar reason, is equal to a very fine reverse overhead 
cut service. 

I have seen Mr. Brookes play Mr. H. L. Doherty three times. 
The first occasion was in practice, and the Australian did as he 
liked. He had the Er'^lish champion running all the time, and 
won almost as he liked (6-2, 6-3, 5-7, if I remember rightly). 
The second time was for the championship, when Mr, Doherty 
was simply "thrashing the dead horse," as Escombe, Caridia, 
Gore, Riseley, Hillyard, and Smith had already won the champion- 
ship of England for him. I must speak plainly about this, as I 
have done before, and I cannot understand how people calling 
themselves sportsmen can tolerate such a custom and put their 
visitors and brother sportsmen at such a serious disadvantage. 
It is a cruel, inhospitable condition, a slur on the name of English 
fair play, and must in common decency be abolished, so that the 
champion has to play right through the draw. Who, may I ask, 
was entitled to standout of the draw when the first championship 
was played ? Mr, Doherty won this match— if I may so insult a 
word— in three straight sets. He really played the greatest game 
I ever saw him put up. It was almost perfect. He was in to the 
net — not the service line — most of the time, and his anticipation 



Spalding'' s Athletic Library. 209 

was splendid ; but poor Brookes had ricked his side as the 
result of his week's gruelling singles and a strain in the champion 
doubles a day or two before, so he was robbed of more than 
half his game — his service. 

He met Mr. Doherty later at Wimbledon in the Anglo- 
Australasian match, and defeated him easily in straight sets. 
In referring to this game, an English writer, in trying to excuse 
this defeat, called it a kind of garden-party tennis, and sought to 
show it was not a serious match. Nothing could be in worse 
form. Either the match was a serious match or some one was 
spoofing his guests, and at the other end of the world we have an 
ugly little word of three letters, which may all be found in the 
first four letters of the alphabet, which we use to describe such a 
person. It will not, however, be required here, for every one 
who knows the inner history of these matters is well aware that 
nothing was given away in these matches. 

So as between Messrs. Brookes and Doherty the matter now 
rests, and if they both meet again at any time under fair conditions, 
if Brookes is on his game, I cannot see how he is going to lose. 

I do not take much notice of collateral form at lawn tennis, 
but there were two matches that impressed me very much. 
S. H. Smith met Holcombe Ward in the championship and 
simply "blew him off the court" in straight sets. Smith's 
driving was simply wonderful. He hit everything, service and 
return, and drove with remarkable accuracy. I have sometimes 
seen the same thing done for a few games or a set, but to keep it 
going as Smith did for three sets was a very remarkable perform- 
ance. His placing was superb. He hit the side lines repeatedly, 
and some of his cross-court drives off the service and out of his 
backhand court were little short of miracles. In the inter- 



2IO S/(i/(//ni^''s Athletic Library. 

nationals VV^ard met \\. L. Dolicrly, and in the fust two sets was 
a winner from the start, hut then he had shot his bolt, and Doherty 
made a wonderful recovery, winnin<^ the last three sets with the 
loss of but two or three games. It was a great performance. 
Ward was completely done after the first two sets, and it was an 
astonishing thing to see the English champion, apparently much 
the weaker man, winning on condition. 

Looking at these two matches by the uncertain light of 
collateral form, I am inclined to think that on the game S. H. 
Smith showed he would have defeated the champion, who him- 
self admits that he cannot go in and volley him as Brookes does. 

For the purposes of the Dwight Davis international cup 
Australasia is a nation. Taking the best form of the three 
nations, Australasia, England, and America, 1 consider that it 
is practically equal. In F^ngland there are a great number 
of good solid players ; but I think that twenty-five Americans 
would trouble a similar number of English players very badly. 
I should expect ten or twelve Australasians after a few months' 
tournament play here to hold their own quite comfortably. 

The first-class player in New Zealand is much nearer to first 
class in England than is generally known here— or there. All he 
wants is a few months of tournament play. Without any shadow 
of hesitation I can say that the finest smash and backhand drive 
I know are played by a New Zealand player, who himself has no 
idea how good these strokes are when judged by the highest 
standard in the world. 

Both in singles and doubles these three nations are very close 
together, and I am hoping to see the practice of the holders 
standing out abolished in this contest also. Then we shall have 
some very interesting contests. 



spa/ding's Athletic Library, 211 

The captain of the last American team came to me a day or two 
before the internationals, and asked me what I thought should 
be their team. I said without hesitation, " Ward and Wright, 
singles and doubles. You can't very well do anything else." 
Neither should they have done anything else on form. Wright's 
performance against Brookes stamped him as being in great 
form, and since then he has amply demonstrated that the great 
opinion I had of his play was not unwarranted. He is as strong 
as a horse, as keen as a razor, as active as a kitten, a trier for 
every ball, and all the time he is racing about the court he is 
"cerebrating." He does nothing without thinking. His strokes 
are very accurate. To my mind both he and Holcombe Ward 
use the chop stroke too much ; but whereas Ward uses it more 
for dropping balls short, Wright to a great extent makes it his 
staple shot. How well he does it only those who have seen him 
play know ; but I must say that I think that the forehand drive 
with lift is neglected too much by these famous players. Neither 
of them, for instance, have as good a forehand drive as Miss 
Sutton. Ward does use the stroke occasionally, but it is rather 
a laboured and obvious shot. He gave me the distinct impression, 
although he said he felt perfectly well, of not being up to " concert 
pitch." He has a fine American service, which stood him in good 
stead. His volleying, especially his cross-court cut volleys, were 
sometimes quite wonderful. On the whole I was disappointed 
with the American team's play. Ward, Wright, Larned, and 
Clothier reads well on paper, but it always seemed to me, that 
they were struggling to reproduce much better form than they 
showed. A visiting team is always at a disadvantage, and they 
on this occasion were, I think, not doing themselves justice. Their 
form, particularly in the singles, v^ould seem to support my view. 



212 Spalding's Athletic Library. 

In the ladies' game the advantage, in my opinion, is distinctly 
with the English ladies, although we do not hold the inter- 
national championship. No impartial person could possibly say 
that Miss Douglass was in anything like her championship form. 
Her accident had unquestionably interfered with her play. It 
would suit me quite well to say that Miss Sutton's play is superior 
to Miss Douglass's if I could conscientiously do so, for she uses 
the finest stroke in the game, the stroke I am always advocating, 
and on the day was without doubt the better player ; but the 
ladies of England can do much better than they did last time, 
and will, or I am mistaken. 

Miss Thomson was going quite well against Miss Sutton while 
she played her short drop shots, which to a great extent spoiled 
Miss Sutton's drive ; but after she abandoned these the game 
turned at once in favour of the American player. If Miss Sutton 
defends her title this year there should be much interest in the 
event. 

THE VALUE OF ROTATION. 

Very few lawn-tennis players in England realise the great im- 
portance of being able to make the flight and bound of the ball 
deceptive. The ability to do this in all strokes is of importance, 
but it is particularly in the service that its value will be most 
appreciated. The flight and bound of the ball can only be made 
deceptive by such strokes as impart spin to the ball. All plain 
ball strokes fly through the air and bound in a natural and easily 
anticipated manner, but it is not so with the cut or lifted ball. Its 
flight and bound are frequently most puzzling, especiallv for 
one who cannot tell the kind of ball to expect by the action of 
his opponent and the angle at which his racket crosses the ball 
in his service or other stroke. 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 213 

This is shown in a marked degree by the difficulty the best 
English players have in anticipating and dealing with the 
American service. Soon after Modern Lawn Tennis, in which I 
fully explained the American service, was published, a prominent 
member of the All England Lawn-tennis Club said to me in 
quite a benevolent manner, as one who rather pitied the aberra- 
tions of a well-intentioned youth, " Don't you think this American 
service business is quite exploded, Mr. Vaile ? " 

I explained to him without unduly lacerating his feelings that 
in England it could not be exploded, because it was not under- 
stood nor played, and consequently had never had a trial, nor 
could it ever have a trial until the present defective hold of the 
racket is abandoned. 

He smiled gently. I read his thoughts, and internallv I beamed 
back upon him with interest. It is " the only way." It is quite 
useless to get annoyed. If you cannot see the humour of 
ignorance considering your mind a trifle unhinged you would get 
grey in a week in England. Many people get angry about these 
things. They rant and rave about the Englishman's insular self- 
satisfaction. These persons are not even embryotic philosophers. 
The probability is that in their own eyes are large beams which 
they disregard while attending to the English motes. They 
must also remember that the Englishman has been here a long 
time, and they must recognise the fact that they cannot recon- 
struct his lawn tennis, let alone him, in a few weeks. These two 
tasks will take time, but it is noble work to do, a game worth 
playing, so in the meantime if one does think the Englishman's 
outlook is insulant — this is a more expressive word than insular — 
let him not fret himself at such insulance, for all things are as 
they were meant to be, and there are in England to-day signs of 



214 Spaldi/ig's At file tic Library. 

the awakening of a mighty nation to her needs, signs of a slow 
heaving of a vast power that will ere long burst the bonds of 
slavish adherence to obsolete and effete customs which are 
trammelling the expansion of a great empire. 

However, this is b}' the way, and getting perilously near to 
politics, so I must return to the value of the American service, 
which my venerable friend's remark had for the moment led 
me from. Within a few weeks after he saw Messrs. R. F. and 
H. L. Doherty defeated at Queen's Club by the Australian pair, 
and he was fain to admit that the American service played a very 
conspicuous part in their downfall, although A. W. Dunlop's fine 
volleying was equally valuable. Messrs. Doherty are perhaps the 
two safest players in the world so far as regards the return of the 
service. 

They so rarely endeavour to win off it, but are satisfied to get 
it back and get into position for the next shot, that they make 
very few mistakes, yet in this match it was no uncommon thing 
for them to utterly fail to get the service on their rackets. At 
Queen's Club in the covered-courts meeting in October, 1904, I 
saw H. L. Doherty repeatedly tied into knots with Anthony 
Wilding's reverse American service, and I dealt fully with that 
and other matters, which at that time were not so well recognised 
as established tactics as they are now, in the issue of The Field of 
October 15, 1904. 

The point I wish to make is that if Mr. Brookes can so clearly 
nonplus and score off two such reliable veterans as Messrs. 
Doherty as he undoubtedly did, and if the young New Zealander 
with his reverse American service could so puzzle the champion 
of the world, surely it is futile nonsense to attempt to beHttle a 
most valuable method of attack because a faulty grip of the 



Spa/di?ii^''s Athktic LibniryK 215 

racket makes it impossible for English players to cultivate it. To 
change one's grip is obviously the only thing for one who desires 
to use modern strokes and to become first class. 

There is a service that I did not illustrate. It is simply a 
lifting service. It is played in the same manner as the ordinary 
American service, with the exception that the cut is pure straight 
lift which gives vertical forwardly rotating motion to the ball 
similar to that which is imparted by the forehand drive, instead 
of the cut being slightly across the ball. The lifting service will 
not, of course, break either way, but it gets up rather suddenly 
and has a long bound. It is a good service, and presents no 
difficulty to any one who can cut a ball. It enables one to hit the 
ball very hard, and on account of the spin to obtain a fine length. 
Curiously enough, some English plavers put this lift on ; if they 
would only cut across the ball more at an angle instead of hitting 
straight upwards they would have the American service at once 
with but slight alteration of grip for the ordinary one. Similarly 
any one who uses forehand cut can easily get the American 
service by altering the angle of his cut in an upward direction. 

I have not dealt with the underhand-cut service. This forehand 
service is delivered by allowing the ball to drop until it is quite 
near the ground and then bringing the racket with a good 
swing from at least the height of your shoulder sharply across 
the ball from right to left. This imparts a lot of spin to the ball 
which skims the net and breaks from right to left of the receiver. 
A well-placed ball of this kind, which pitches near the side line 
in the backhand court and breaks out of court, keeping low all the 
time, is very hard to deal with effectivelv. 

Every budding champion must not onlv set himself to learn 
the American services and the forehand and reverse cut services, 



2i6 Spa/di?ig^s Athletic Library. 

but he nuibt have a command of the forehand drive with Hft and 
the chop stroke. It was a popuhir fallacy in England for years — 
I hope ihal is exploded now — that cut detracts from accuracy in 
play, whereas exactly the opposite is the case, but cut must not be 
exaggerated for all ordinary work. Beats Wright, the American 
champion, and Norman E, Brookes, the Australian, rarely, if ever, 
hit a ball with a plain-face racket. H. L. Doherty undercuts 
nearly all his backhand shots, both volleys and ground strokes. 

DEFECTIVE HOLD OF THE RACKET. 

I have already dealt fairly fully with this matter, but it is of 
such great importance to the future of the game that I must 
refer to it a little more fully. At present there are two schools 
of lawn tennis in the world, the English and the other. The 
other includes the whole of the rest of the tennis-playing world, 
except where here and there one finds a few players who have 
followed English methods. When England stands by herself 
against the opinion and practice of the world, as in what she 
vainly believes is free trade, she is always wrong. So she is 
in this case. 

Few players who use the English grip have any idea of 
the enormous amount of force they waste during a match. 
A curious fact, which I have never seen referred to, is that 
Englisli ladies do not use the same grips as the men. The 
reason is not far to seek. They have not the strength to 
waste that the men have. The consequence is that they play 
natural strokes, and nearly always have the handles of their 
rackets in line with their forearms at the time of hitting the 
ball. The usual forehand with the ladies in England is the 
same stroke as the forehand-cut service described in the last 



Spalding'' s Athletic Library. 217 

chapter. They let the ball drop till it is near the ground, then 
cut across it from right to left, and thus they get a very good 
drive, which is well played by many men, but has nothing 
to recommend it as a staple stroke in preference to the fore- 
hand lifting drive. 

The backhand is a natural stroke, and is frequently cut heavily. 
Some lady players are very reliable on the backhand ; some 
indeed are very good, and I do not know a man who has a 
better backhand than Miss Ethel Thomson, but she could not 
play it as the men do their stroke. These facts should make 
those who are playing the unnatural strokes reflect, and the 
ladies having in many cases already the proper natural grips 
should make a great effort to cultivate the forehand drive with 
lift, which really is not hard to get. 

It is now many years since England has produced even a 
promising young player. Anthony Wilding, the New Zealand 
player, is the most prominent example. It has been said that he 
learnt his lawn tennis in England, and many people think that 
he would now have the championship of New Zealand at his 
mercy. The statement and the supposition are both wrong. 
He learnt his lawn tennis in New Zealand, and has merely 
developed his strokes in England, and he would not be a 
certainty for the New Zealand championship, although I have 
no doubt that now he would give it a great shake ; but there 
are plenty in New Zealand who can do as well as, if not better 
than. Wilding, an they have his opportunities. I say this 
without in the slightest degree disparaging Wilding's ability, 
but in common justice to the standard of New Zealand play, 
even as I did of Australian play two years ago. 

The dearth of young players in England has to be accounted 



2i8 Spa/difi^i:^'s .llhh'tic Library. 

lor. In my opinion it is simple to do it. The hold of the 
racket favoured by Messrs. Doherty is without the least shadow 
of doubt unnatural and from a mechanical standpoint defective. 
The lead of success has been blindly followed by many, if not 
most, of the rising players. They will never raise a great game 
on this foundation. One man's hold is another man's undoing. 
A hold which suits a man who lives at the game may not suit 
another who cannot spare the same or even a respectable 
fraction of the time for play that his more favoured fellow- 
player can devote to it. If one blindly follows a person who 
is doing a thing in a defective manner, it is probable that the 
pioneer of the defective method will have the advantage. These 
points must all be considered in dealing with this matter. 

It must also be remembered in support of my contention 
that the hold of Messrs. Doherty is quite unsuitcd to the great 
majority of players, that of the first-class players of the world 
they probably stand by themselves as exponents of that hold. 
It has been clearly demonstrated, botii in singles and doubles, 
that there is no remarkable gap between them and the best 
of other nations. The question for the rising generation to 
settle is, then, "Are we going to play unnatural strokes and waste 
our strength in the air, or shall we put all our force on to the 
ball ? " I wish schoolmasters in my youthful days had known the 
English forehand stroke. Unfortunately the dull fellows knew 
only too well that the cane and the forearm must be in the 
same " plane of force " to be effective, and to my sorrow thev 
generally put in good work on the forehand or whatever else 
it was. 

Of the leading players of the world I may take the following 
as illustrations. All our greatest forehand drivers, S. H. Smith, 



Sfa/di/ig's Athletic Library. 219 

G. W. Hillyard, A. W. Gore, and others, observe the cardinal 
rule, arm in Hne with racket handle for all drives, quite naturally. 
Smith is inclined at times to get off the line a little, but seven or 
eight instantaneous pliotographs of him in Great Lawn-tennis 
Players show clearly that he carries out the great principle in 
practice. M. J. G. Ritchie, a strong, natural player, carries it 
out on both hands ; so does Wilding. G. A. Caridia is natural 
on his backhand, where he gets all his best shots, but not quite 
so on his forehand, where he is much less effective, 

Norman E. Brookes is a remarkable instance of the rule. 
His short stabbing volleys especially are always got this way, 
and his service, if he disregarded the rule, would be rendered 
useless at once. No Australasian players of any note consider 
the hold worthy of trial. Holcombe Ward, Beals C. Wright, 
W. A. Larned, and Clothier, the last American international team, 
all use the holds, and religiously observe the rule laid down 
by me, which indeed is so simple and obvious that it would 
seem to me an act of supererogation to lay it down at all 
were its continued violation not " rotting " English lawn tennis. 

I cannot say any more plainly what I think of the influence 
of this very faulty hold. If I could I would, for it has robbed 
English lawn tennis of half the strokes and much of the beauty 
of the game, and has given us no adequate advantage to make up 
for the loss, unless we consider it an advantage to reduce a great 
and scientific game to pat-ball, and that is the only natural 
result for most players of retaining the present hold. 

The holds in themselves are bad, but when some players go 
further and suggest playing lawn tennis with one hold of the 
racket all the time, then the height of absurdity is reached, and 
with any who know the game argument is rendered unnecessary. 



220 Spa/(iing''s Athletic Library. 

No man, unless his wrist is a universal joint, can ever play 
the game of lawn tennis with an unchanged grip. He may play 
a part of it. That is all he can hope for. That is all the young 
players of England are doing. That is why for year after year 
the same names remain at the head of the match results, and 
why young players are disgusted and disheartened with their 
lack of improvement in the game and with their small success 
in tournaments. 

It should be remembered that at last All England cliampion- 
ship tournament no player using this hold, and who had to 
play through the draw, acquitted himself even tolerably well. 
I give it not more than three years to live. Then it and 
big-handled, double-strung, glassy faced rackets, will all be 
things of the past, and we shall be back again to the 
game as we were originally taught it, with, of course, the 
few improvements that have been added ; we shall have natural 
handles that do not stiffen the wrist, single strung rackets of 
not unnatural tension, and we shall be playing the game as it 
is played everywhere in the world except in England, whence 
we got it. 

THE POSITION OF THE STRIKER-OUTS PARTNER. 

I have already referred to the position of the striker-out's 
partner, but the matter is of such importance to the double game 
that I shall illustrate it by diagram. I have taken the initials of 
the players who contested the match at Queen's Club, when the 
Australian pair beat the English champions, to illustrate my 
point, and I have used their initials as that carries it home more 
forcibly than calling them A and B. 



NEB 











A.W.D. 




RFD. 

■ 






t» 



I 
A 



H.L.D 



2 22 Spalding's Athletic Libniry. 

Here we have, let us say, X. E. Brookes, serving to H. L. 
Dohcrty. We see R. K. Doherty in his usual position. If any one 
doubts the accuracy of this let him look at plate clxxxviii. 
tl seq., Great Luic'ii-teiinis Players. We see A. W. Dunlop 
standing right up to the net, and well in, for he knows that, off 
Brookes' service, especially if it is centred, H. L. Doherty cannot 
possibly rely on an accurate side-line passing shot. Now, if 
H. L. Doherty can rely on playing a perfect return, so as to pass 
Dunlop, and can then follow it in and range alongside his brother, 
this position may be justified, but, as a matter of fact, he cannot. 
What is the result ? I shall let my comments on the match in a 
London daily, published next morning, speak as to this : — 

" Few who read the innocent announcement of this match had 
any idea of the treat that was in store for them. Very few 
thought that the Dohertys, fresh from their victory at Wimbledon, 
were in any danger of having the lustre of their achievement 
dimmed by the result of the meeting. Personally I looked 
forward to the match with great interest, for I know what a 
dangerous combination the Australians are. A year ago I wrote, 
' Give me a good team of Australasians, such as I could pick, and 
let me acclimatise them here for a few months, with plenty of 
tournament play, and there are more unlikely things than that the 
Messrs. Doherty would have to go to the land of the Golden 
Fleece tennis ash-hunting.' Of course, the idea was scouted, but 
Saturday's game conclusively proved the accuracy of my estimate 
of P>nglish and Australian form. 

" The Dohertys' tactics were not good, and in my opinion they 
lost the matcii on the defective position of the striker-out's 
partner. They always have the striker-out's partner near the net. 
This position is only justifiable on the assumption that the striker- 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 223 

out will make a practically perfect return, which he nearly always 
doesn't, particularly when he is dealing with the N. E. Brookes' 
service. Brookes was serving well, and won nearly all his service 
games with ridiculous ease, thus clearly demonstrating the 
immense value of the American service. Owing to R. F. Doherty 
standing in when his brother was receiving, the Australians 
pelted his feet mercilessly, and also drove at him. On account of 
his peculiar hold he cannot effectively take a ball very close to 
his forehand side. His return from this position is generally very 
soft, and this point was largely used against him. 

" Dunlop volleyed very well, both below the net and overhead, 
and generally played a fine game." 

Speaking of the mistakes made through the faulty position of 
the striker-out's partner, and which, by the way, were not entirely 
on the one side, I said : " I am nearly tired of referring to this, as 
it is such an obviously stupid position. The Americans will 
have none of it, and I do not think any pair using it throughout 
the match will win the international doubles." 

Luckily for Messrs. Doherty they did not repeat their error, and 
they just got through in another desperate five-set match. 

The match at Queen's Club, between the Australians and 
Messrs. Doherty, was very interesting, so I shall give a short 
description of the play, which I wrote at the time for the journal 
wherein the above remarks appeared. 

" The Australians won the first set in good style, 6-3. The 
Dohertys responded by taking the next two sets, 5-7, 2-6. A 
gentleman sitting by me said they were obviously the better pair. 
'Taihoa,' I said to him. 'What's that?' he asked. 'The Maori 
for " Wait a bit," ' I replied. The Australians won the next set 
amidst much excitement, at 6-4, and stood two sets all. They 



2 24 Spa /ding's Athletic Library. 

got 2-lovc ill the deciding set. The Dohertys equalised. The 
Australians then ran to 5-2, a commanding lead. The 
champions, who felt the match slipping away from them, now 
made a great effort. They won Dunlop's service, 5-3 was 
called. 

"Then my unknown friend spoke again : 'It's all right now. 
H. L. will win his service, and it will be all right,' he said. 
' Don't worry,' I replied, ' that only carries it to 5-4, with 
Brookes' service, and that will end it,' and so it did, for Brookes 
continuing to serve well, and Dunlop ably seconding his efforts, 
the Australians ran out the winners by three sets to two, and thus 
set the seal on the fame of Australian doubles play. It was 
unquestionably a very fine performance. The scores were 6-3, 
5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4." 

Looking at Fig. 4 again, you will see that if Dunlop gets on to 
anything that H. L. Doherty miscalculates it is practically a 
certain score for him if he hits it at R. F. Doherty's feet or puts 
it away in the cross-court gap between the brothers, for H. L. 
Doherty cannot get up quickly enough to cover this. It must be 
remembered that he is used to slow lifting volleys, from near the 
service line. It is another thing if a man stands up " on ' the net 
and hits everything downwards. This is what the Australians 
did, and I never saw R. F. Doherty so hopelessly at sea. 

I want to make it absolutely certain that this position must be 
considered wrong, so I shall give the several instances wherein 
the famous brothers have, to my knowledge, abandoned it to save 
defeat or used it and suffered defeat. It is a liberty that they 
have taken with the game, and it has come to be looked upon 
as good tactics, whereas in the modern game it is practically 
untenable. The proper position for R. F. Dohertv while H. I>. 



Spaldiivfs Athletic Library. 225 

Doherty is receiving is at A, Fig. 4, and this, subsequent to their 
defeat and my condemnation of their formation, is the position 
the brothers adopted 'igainst the Americans. Now for my 
instances. 

1. In 1902 S. H. Smith and F. L. Riseley beat the champions. 
I was not then in England, but I have it at first-hand that it was 
on this position that the brothers went down. 

2. At Oujen's Chib covered-court meeting in October, when 
Wilding and the late H. S. Mahony looked like beating them, 
Messrs. Doherty gave up the position and stood back together on 
the base line when one of them was receiving. 

3. In the final for the Metropolitan doubles in the same year 
R. P". Doherty and W. V. Eaves, looked very like losing to 
Greville and Mann. R. F. Doherty, whenever he was receiving, 
made Eaves stand back, and did so himself when Eaves was 
receiving, and thus he saved the match. 

4. R. F. and H. L. Doherty played this formation against the 
Australians, Dunlop and Brookes, and lost the match through it. 

5. Against Holcombe Ward and Beals Wright they adopted 
the light position from the start. Several times H. L. Doherty 
tried the old formation, paid for it directly, wisely gave it up, 
and they just won in five hard sets. 

It will thus be seen that they have used the formation on each 
occasion that they have lost. In one case I am informed, in the 
other I am certain, that it cost them the match. I have seen 
them repeatedly when pressed abandon it. 

In an important match like the final of the international cup 
they started in the right position, experimented on their old 
formation, speedily returned to the proper one, and only just 
won. 

H 



2 26 S/^a/(//^fx'^ Athletic Library. 

1 think this should be enough to convince any one who has now 
any doubt that the right place for the striker-out's partner is in a 
line with the receiver. When they can they go up together, still 
relatively the same distance apart. When they can't they must 
wait until they can make the opening. 

This may now be regarded as absolutely settled tactics, and 
I am glad it is so, for from the first article I wrote on English 
lawn tennis up to the present time I have never ceased to point 
to this formation as the greatest blot on English doubles. 

With a pair like R. F. and H. L. Doherty playing an inferior 
combination if they can win on it, there is no objection to their 
taking the liberty, but when less skilful players follow the faulty 
lead, and do much to spoil the double game, these tactics, in the 
interests of the game, must be plainly dealt with. 

HOW TO MAKK AND KEEP A COTRT. 

I have laid out a good many grass courts in my time, and my 
advice to anyone who wants to do the same tiling is to get some 
person who makes it his business to do it for him if he can afford 
it. If he cannot, or if he wants the work and " fun," I must try 
to help him. I have already given general directions as to the 
size of the court, its aspect and so on, so I shall address myself 
here merely to the question of construction. 

These are general instructions, and must, of course, in many 
cases, be subject to local conditions. In laying out a court the 
first thing is to select your site. See that it is protected from the 
prevailing winds, if you can conveniently arrange it so by taking 
advantage of any natural shelter, but on no account have any 
trees, particularlv deciduous trees, near it. 

Having selected your site, you must lay down your side line as 



S/^a/z/inx's A title fie Library. ii'i 

directed and measure out your court. Now comes the important 
matter of settling your levels, and I don't mind telling you that 
I always got a surveyor to do it for me. It saves a lot of trouble 
and prevents you having a court like the centre court at Wimble- 
don, with a drop of six inches from one side to the other. 

If you cannot get a surveyor you can manage it for yourself by 
driving in a stake or two with a straight-edge nailed on at a right 
angle, putting a spirit-level on that, and repeating the operation 
with the other stakes. You will have to level from stake to stake 
by another straight-edge and then along the tops of the attach- 
ments, still using the straight-edge and level, which I am afraid 
you will find rather tedious. 

Having got your levels, the next thing will be to reduce the 
ground. If you are adding the soil to make the lawn, you will 
simply have to straighten out the ground roughly and spread 
your soil on top. You must be careful to get good soil free 
from weeds. 

If you are using the soil already there, you must, if your 
excavation would take you into poor soil, lay back the good soil 
on each side, level up the subsoil and spread the good soil again. 
You must then see that it is thoroughly pulverised and raked, 
and every sign of a weed must be taken out. When you have 
gone thoroughly over it, and raked it until there isn't a nut or a 
weed in it, you may sow it. Here I must leave you to the tender 
mercies of your seedsman with the warning to avoid clover as 
you would sin, and to use nothing but fine lawn grasses suitable 
for your district and climate. 

In sowing you must be careful to spread the seed well with a 
free circular sweep of the hand, which releases the seed equally 
at all portions of its passage ; in fact, unless you know how to do 



2 28 Spa/<fi?i,i!:'s Athletic TAhmry. 

it, again you had better get some one wlio does. Whatever you 
do, be generous with the seed. Put 50 per cent, more on than 
the seedsman tells you to rather tiian 10 per cent. less. You 
should sow when the ground is dry, tlien roll well with an 
ordinary roller. You can run a brush or bougli over the lawn 
so as to sweep all seeds into the soil, or rake lightly again. 
Then roll once more, and Nature will do the rest. 

This is really a very general direction, but it is hard to be more 
specific, as the conditions in each case vary so much ; but what- 
ever you do take no notice of the local quidnunc who advises you 
to have clover because it is always so nice and green, like the 
balls will be and he is, or some other kind of grass because it is 
so soft, as he apparently thinks you are. 

You may, of course, want to turf your lawn. Good turf is in 
many places quite impossible to get. We will assume, however, 
that you can get it and that you have levelled out your lawn and 
the surrounding ground. You must be careful to see that it is 
well drained. In some cases it will be right without anything 
further. In others you will have to tile-drain it. Here again I 
am afraid you will want the tradesman, as so few amateurs can 
do this properly. 

You should have at least ten inches of good soil above the sub- 
soil before you think of putting down your turf, and it stands to 
reason that this must be perfectly and equally consolidated all 
over, otherwise you will have trouble with your turf. See that 
all your turf is of an even thickness. After your turf is laid it 
has to be well trodden or rammed and then lightly rolled. You 
must now leave it alone for a while to settle, and then in a few- 
weeks, when it has "gripped" the soil, you may put a heavier 
roller on to it. During the first two or three weeks, if there 



S/^a/di^{i:\s Athletic Library. 



229 



is not much rain, you should have the sprayer going on the 
lawn. 

Always keep the grass closely mown. If you allow it to grow 
long it becomes rank and thick at the roots, and this spoils a 
lawn. You can hardly cut a tennis lawn too close. I can 
remember nearly getting into trouble with a very worthy secre- 
tary of my club, who thought half an inch of grass made it 
"nice and soft for the feet," by making him an offer for the 
"grazing" on the lawns. He could not understand that you 
cannot cut a lawn too close unless you scrape the earth up. 

Shortly after the end of your season it is well to give the base 
lines some attention. Possibly they will want top-dressing and 
re-sowing, or they will perhaps, in the case of the turfed lawn, 
want re-turfing. In the case of a lawn where the seed has been 
grown on it, especially in its first jj-ear, it is a good plan to give 
it a top-dressing of an inch or so of good soil similar to that 
which was used in putting it down and to treat this with a liberal 
application of some of the superphosphate or bone manures so 
liberally advertised nowadays. 

Water your court in the cool of the evening, never in the heat 
of the day. Keep the roller and the mower going. These are 
the three chief factors in obtaining and keeping a good surface 
after you have once got over the initial difficulties. Carefully 
remove all weeds as soon as they make their appearance. 

Hard Couris. — There are so many different kinds of hard 
courts that I cannot attempt to fully describe each one. I shall 
therefore give general directions which are really applicable to 
nearly all hard courts except such as asphalt, cement, or concrete. 

For nearly all hard courts the following directions will be 
found to answer : Excavate the soil over the area which you 



230 Spa/(ii?io\s; AtJiletic Library. 

intend to put down for a depth of eij^ht inches. Level the 
surface. Lay down about live or six inches of large gravel, 
broken brick, or any other stone or cinder which vou care to 
use as a foundation. Every stone in this should be of such a 
size that it will pass through a two-inch ring. Have this 
thoroughly raked and levelled. Then roll it with a heavy roller 
— the heavier the better. Two and a half tons is not too heavy 
if your subsoil will stand it. Roll it thoroughly, and do not water 
it. This will put it down nearly an inch. 

Now put down an incii and a half to two inches of gravel, 
cinder, burnt clay, or whatever you are using, that is about half 
the size of the foundation-stone. Have this spread by a shovelful 
at a time and sown with a good semicircular sweep of the shovel, 
so as to distribute it evenly. Sweep it well into the interstices 
between the foundation-stones. Do this thoroughly. Then have 
it raked and smoothed and dry-roll it heavily and well. 

Now you have a very solid bed, and you must start to put on 
your top. Let this consist of very small gravel, cinder, or stone 
chips. They must be small enough to readily sweep in between 
the interstices in the last layer and present a smooth 
surface. "Sow" this as before. Sweep it well in as it is put 
down. Give it a good dressing, and now put your water on. 
Don't flood it, but give it a good drenching all over, so as to wash 
the chips down between the larger stones. Now for the first 
time you wet-roll it, and you can hardly give it too much. 

You ought now to have a good surface, but if you are not 
thoroughly satisfied with it you must, when it has dried and set, 
give it another dressing of smaller chips that are almost dust. 
Sweep these well in and water them copiously. Then roll again 
as heavily as you like. If you are making a sand court, your last 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 231 

layer would consist of, say, an inch and a half to two inches 
of sand, but it would then be well to have some lime or some 
similar substance to mix with it, otherwise it will probably not 
bind well unless it is fairly coarse. 

You must not make the mistake of putting down too much 
dust on the court. Your final dressing should be small chips in 
preference to dust, for if your last layer is too fine it merely 
sinks between the larger stones or rubble and is in dry weather 
a cushion of dust and in wet a pad of mud, so that your court 
will not consolidate at all, an. I it will be as ghastly a failure as a 
court as is the Thames Embankment as a road. 

In each layer you must see that you have your stones carefully 
graded. They should be as nearly as possible of uniform size. 
It is a good idea to have your court an inch or an inch and a half 
higher down the centre than at the sides. This allows the water 
to run off freely. 

Unless your site is naturally fairly well drained you should 
tile-drain it before you put down your foundations, or if you 
do not do that you can make your " floor " slope to some given 
point and put in a few pipes to carry off any soakage. 

These are necessarily very general directions, but the prin- 
ciples are sound and will be found to answer here if intelligently 
carried out, even as they do in road-making, for that is what they 
amount to. They are practically the scientific method of road- 
making which is so generally neglected throughout England, 
and particularly on the Thames Embankment. 

AFTERWORD. 

This is the third book on lawn tennis that I have written within 
the space of two years. Strangely enough in no case was the 



232 Spalding's Athletic Library. 

undertaking of my seeking, yet I venture to hope that this latest 
effort will fill a vacant place and reach people who would never 
see or read my larger and more expensive works on the game. 
I have always thought that some fairly complete treatise on the 
modern game should be obtainable for two shillings or half a 
crown, and it was my intention, when I had time, to endeavour to 
publish a cheap book of that description. I was therefore very 
pleased to have the opportunity offered me of doing much more 
than I originally intended, and of producing a book which I 
hope will be the means of popularising the game and correcting 
those existing errors which are retarding its growth. 

I have in this book not hesitated to point out plainly what I 
consider wrong in connection with the game. It is useless to 
mince matters in such circumstances, and the higher the position 
of those I deal with the less need do I see for cloaking my 
opinions in honeyed phrases. Genuine and intelligent criticism 
must make for the ultimate advancement of the game. I have 
never hesitated to give it, or to receive it. A keen critic must 
himself be patient under criticism. No doubt I shall require to 
exercise the virtue of patience. I have done it before, and shall, I 
hope, manage to do it again. I am now engaged in revising the 
proofs of the second edition of Modern Laic 11 Tennis, which has 
stood the test of two seasons and goes again to the printer 
without alteration in so far as regards the game. It is perhaps 
needless to say that I am gratified at the manner in which it has 
been received. Any one who has the welfare of the game at 
heart, as I have, must feel his responsibility in condemning so 
plainly and severely as I do the existing English methods, but I 
always at least remember that lawn tennis is a game. I have 
steadfastly refused to make a tragedy of it, and I have conse- 



Spa/di/ij^'s Athletic Library. 233 

quently, during my as^ociatioll with the game in England, been 
enabled to enjoy many a little comedy that has been enacted for 
ny special benefit or otherwise. 

No one is better aware than I that an instructor should not tell 
his pupils of their deficiencies too plainly, but in this place 
nothing can be gained by blinking the facts. I write the game as 
I played it — as I hope to play it again when I can spare time — 
to get the most enjoyment I can out of it, and to enable others to 
do the same. The next few years will show whether I am right 
in my prophecy that the English game will be entirely altered. 
I await the verdict with the utmost confidence— nay, with a con- 
viction amounting to certainty ; an 1 I am sure that when this 
does come to pass lawn tennis will lake a new lease of life, for it 
will be a stronger, brighter, better thing in every way than that 
we have now. 

With this book I have, so far as I am able, brought lawn 
tennis and the lessons to be gained from our international 
meetings right up to the latest d jvelopments, and there I willingly 
leave it, for there is other and more serious work to be done ; but 
I shall never regret the time that I have devoted to what I 
consider the best interests of the game, for it is full of pleasant 
associations and memories, an 1 not the least of these will be my 
privilege in being able to put this little work before a largely 
extended circle of readers to whom expensive books are not 
available. 

I have frequently been accused of having made a special study 
of games. If I were wise I should accept the statement and 
look and be as ponderous as I know how to. The plain fact is, 
however, that I have never specially studied games, for unless a 
man has much leisure and little intellect there is, I always think, 



234 Spa/di?ii('s Athletic Lihrar\\ 

better work for the exercise of his talents awaiting him. Where, 
however, I have managed to obtain some small advantage over 
other men is that I never hit a ball without a very definite object 
be it a billiard-ball, a cricket-ball, a golf-ball, a tennis-ball or 
indeed any other kind of ball. 

After I have hit it that ball hasn't gone very far before I am 
analysing the result of my effort and its probable effect on the 
run, flight, or break of that ball. I am in communion with the 
ball until it is again at rest. It talks to me, if you care to put it 
so, and tells me where I topped it too much or undercut it too 
heavily, that I sliced it or pulled it when I shouldn't have, or any 
one of a hundred different things. This is all a matter of 
observation, and comes quite naturally — especially after twenty 
years of it — to any one who really has his heart in his game and 
wishes to get all the pleasure there is to be got out of it, for a 
game is recreation for the mind and body, and senseless, unin- 
tellectual smiting of a ball cannot give to any one the pleasure 
that another with a full knowledge of the possibilities of the 
flying or rolling sphere can get from an intelligent treatment 
of it. 

I am almost afraid to speak of the mind in connection with a 
game, for there is a large class of players who begin to look 
upon you with distrust directly you hint that there is such a 
thing as brain-work in a game. You immediately run great risks 
of being taken for a *' fleshless dietist " or " some kind of an 
unholy crank," as I heard one gentleman not altogether inaccu- 
rately describe himself a short time ago. 

It is a peculiar but nevertheless well-known fact that a man 
who takes to " studying " any one game to the exclusion of others 
does develop into a crank, and he is generally a most insufferable 



Spalding's Athletic Library. 235 

bore. That is what any one who takes up a game must carefully 
avoid. It is after all only the usual result if one's outlook in life 
is narrowed. If ever you are tempted to study a game, study 
two, and let one of them be the game of life, for this is the only 
one worthy of the serious study of a man ; but unless you have it 
in you to study lawn tennis or some other game and to see its 
beauties or its defects, the probability is that you will be lacking 
in that observation and true sympathy which is the secret to 
success in a study of the greatest game there is — the only one 
worth studying. 

Do not, however, let this discourage you. There is perhaps no 
more neglected faculty than that of observation. You have a 
wide field before you and the hope of an immeasurably enlarged 
horizon to cheer you on, and as you go you will soon find that 
using your eyes for the purpose they are intended for is no 
trouble, but becomes in time habit. So many have not yet 
acquired the habit. 

Thus it will come to pass that in the end you will reahse that 
the ultimate object of life is not games, nor the ultimate object 
of games — pots. You will see that the true enjoyment of games 
is obtained from social intercourse and the stimulus, both to body 
and mind, which you derive from them. Then you are beginning 
to learn and to enjoy — and if you can win a few championships 
there is no objection ! 

P. A. VAILE. 




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HIGHEST AWARDS 

rOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

GRAND PRIZE /i^^^ GRAND PRIX 

ST. LOUIS nJlMI,)-) PARIS 

1900 



1904 



-o c? 





Spaldrng High Grade Tennis Raehets 

yi/E GUARANTEE Tennis Rackets bearing the Spalding Trade- 
" Mark during- the playing season in which they are purchased, pro- 
vided they are 13 ounces or more in weight. Any racket of 13 ounces or 
more in weight that gives out from defective material or workmanship 
during the season purchased, will be repaired or replaced without charge, 
provided it is returned to us prepaid with the name and address of the 
sender, together with a letter explaining the claim. 

^AUTI O N— A Tennis Racket is extremely susceptible to atmospheric 
^^ changes, and the very finest gut will give out occasionally through 
no fault, of material or workmanship; such cases are not within the scope 
of a Guarantee. A Racket should always, when not in use, be covered 
with a Waterproof Cover, placed in a Racket Press, and kept in a cool, 
dry room. It is a wise precaution to varnish the gut occasionally. 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS. 



For description and prices see opposite page. (P- 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR. SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

GRAND PRIZE /^^^ GRAND PRIX 

ST. LOUIS \ (S^AlSL^b)") PARIS 

1904 \<py/ 1900 




\)G 

Spalding 
High Grade Tennis Rackets 

nPHE good points in the following rackets can be vouched 
■*• for by some of the most successful of last season's 
players. In all of them quality of material and workman- 
ship is superb and perfect balance assured. Each frame 
made of finest white ash, highly polished; combed mahog- 
any handle, leather capped; stringing of good quality 
lambs' gut. 

No. 1 1. The Tournament. Taped Shoulders 

Each, $4.00 
No. 6. The Vantage. . Each, $3.50 

No. 8. The Slocum. . " 3.50 

In No. 8 we have retained the old Slocum shape for players 

who prefer to stick to the style to which they have been 

so long accustomed. 

We Will supply, if required, but cannot 

guarantee, any rackets weighing less than 

thirteen ounces. 

Send for Spalding's Complete Catalogue of all Athletic Sports 



^^ 3) A. C. SPALDING & BROS. g ^ 

New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 




liTe Spalding Tennis Rackets 

W^ff GUARANTEE Tennis Rackets hearing the Spalding Trade-Mark 
during the playing season in which they are pxirchased, provided 
they are 13 ounces or more tn weight. Any racket of 13 ounces or more 
in weight that gii'es out from defective material or workmanship during 
the season purrhased, ivill be repaired or replaced withoiit charge, 
provided it is returned to us prepaid with the name and address of the 
sender, together with a letter explaining the claim. 

r^AUTION—A Tennis Racket is extremely susceptible to atmospheric 
changes, and the very finest gut will give out occasionally through 
no fault of material or workmanship; such cases are not within the scope 
of a Guarantee. A Racket should always, when not in use, be covered 
with a Waterproof Cover, placed in a Racket Press, and kept in a cool. 
dry room. It is a wise precaution to varnish the gut occasioncdly. 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS. 



^ For description and prices see opposite pasre. ^ 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 



/^ 





The SPALDING 
TENNIS RACKETS 

MODELLED on the expert Spalding shape. 
Frames of the finest selected white ash, 
highly polished, with combed mahogany 
handle; leather capped; stringing of good 
quality Oriental gut. 

No. 5. The Lakeside. Each, $3.00 
No. 4. The Greenwood. Each, 2.00 






HE following are of excellent quality. 
Frames of white ash, finely finished, with 
combed cedar handle; leather capped; 
good quality Oriental gut stringing. 

No. 3. The Geneva. Each, $1.50 
No. 2. The Favorite. Each, 1.00 



We will supply, if required, b«t cannot^ guarantee, any 
rackets weighing less than thirteen ounces. 



Send for Spalding's Complete Catalogue of all Athletic Sports. 



r^ 



A. C. SPALDING & BROS. 



(U 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

S°!l°r X., .^•P^^^P'^^i^, Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 
Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 



"^ 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

rOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

GRAND PRIZE 4^S\ GRAND PRIX 

ST. LOUIS n5N:5!H|,j') PARIS 

' 1900 



^ G= 





The Spalding 
Championship Tennis Ball 

Perfect> Inflation. Perfects Covering. 
Perfect* Sewing. 

For Description and Price sec Opposite Page. 



^ 



A. C. SPALDING &. BROS. 



^, 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Can. London, England 



3 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

^r^ GRAND PRIX 

t»G)") PARIS 

1900 



GRAND PRIZE 

ST. LOUIS 
1904 




The Spalding 
Championship Tennis Boll 



QN the record made by the Spalding Cham- 
pionship Tennis Ball so far we are willing 
to base our claims for superiority, and wher- 
ever the ball is used, either in a tournament 
or regular play, we are certain our judgment 
will be confirmed. Absolutely best in every 
particular of manufacture and made by people 
who have been in our employ, many of them 
for twenty years and over, we place the 
Spalding Championship Tennis Ball before 
the most critical clientele in the athletic world 
with perfect confidence that it will give abso- 
lute satisfaction. 

No. OO. Dozen, $4.00 



Send for Spalding's Handsomely Illustrated Catalogue of all Sports. 



£)Q= 



,^ 



A. C. SPALDING & BROS. 



(U. 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 




SPALDING lOlBINAIWElNT TtlNINiS Ull 

^HIS ball is the equal of any of the so- 
called championship balls made up by 
others in imitation of our best grade. 
Uniform in quality and carefully constucted 
throughout. Regulation size and weight. 
Fine felt cover. 

No. 0. Perdoz., $3.00 



Send for Spaldingr's Illustrated Catalogue of all Sports. 



*^ 






.^ 



A. C. SPALDING <&. BROS. 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Eloston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans ! 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 
GRAND PRIZE X^^y GRAND PRIX 

m°€n PARIS 



e) G= 




■^ 



RACKETS 
RESTRUNG 

'W^E make a specialty of 

restringing rackets of 

every known make. The 

work is done by our most 

scientific stringers, and none 

but first quality gut is used. 

When sending rackets to us to be 

restrung be sure to prepay 

charges on the package and mark 

with your name and address. 

Write us under separate cover full 

particulars regarding restringing. 

No. 1. Oriental Gut, White, Red, 
or Red and White. Each, $ 1 .00 

No. 2. Lambs' Gut, White only. 
Each, $1.50 

No. 3. Best Lambs' Gut, White 
only. . . Each, $2.50 



J 



^ 



A. G. SPALDING & BROS. 



?=^ 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 



HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 






HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDWC ATHLETIC GOODS 
GRAND PRIZE /^^ GRAND PRIX 

ST. LOUIS V(\PAU)I%IJ PARIS 

1904 \\<:>>// ,900 



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HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

GRAND PRIZE /%<r:;«>v GRAND PRIX 

ST. LOUIS r(\PALD|f||,)-) PARIS 





5100. 



<^ 



c> 








HIGHEST AWARDS 

rOK SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 



GRAND PRIZE 

ST. LOUIS 
1904 






GRAND PRIX 

PARIS 
1900 




4.J SPALDING 

CHAMPIONSHIP 1\ 

TENNIS POSTS , 

THIS style post is really the most practi- 
cable ever made. Expert players who 
have taken part in national and other 
tournaments will recognize in it an old friend, 
improved in some respects and just as reliable 
as ever. Uprights are made of heavy 2-inch 
japanned iron piping, pointed at lower end so 
so as to go 24 inches into ground and equipped 
with wheel at top. Ratchet for tightening net 
is of an improved style, neat in appearance 
but with a particularly strong leverage. Iron 

hooks and cleats for fastening ropes. 
One of the special features of this style post, 
outside of the rachet. is the method of ensur- 
ing absolute rigidity when net is in position. 
By means of triple claw clutches made of 
heavy wrought iron, there can be no shifting 
or shaking once they are placed in position, 
and the tighter the net is drawn the more 
rigid the posts become. 





No. A. Per pair, $20.00 



Send for Spalding's handsomely illustrated 

catalogue of all athletic sports. Mailed 

free to any address in the United States or 

Canada. 





MIOHEST AWARDS 

rOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

GRAND PRIZE /^^ GRAND PRIX 

ST. LOUIS [[mmj PARIS 

1904 V^SV 1900 




Spalding Club 
Tennis PostsS^ 



To insure absolute rigidity, a 
prime requisite in a tennis 
post, it is really necessary 
that some part of the post itself 
should go into the ground. Our ex- 
perience has taught us the futility 
of endeavoring to provide fasten- 
ings which do not embrace this 
idea, and we believe that the vast 
majority of those who have any- 
thing to do with the care of a ten- 
nis court will agree with us in this 
statement. 

pur club Tennis Posts are made of 
best quality 2 3-4 inch square ash, 
nicely polished and varnished, 
equipped with Japanned braces so 
as to make posts absolulely rigid, 
and when set in position the posts 
extend 24 inches into the ground. 

We call particular attention to the 
extra heavy brass ratchet with 
which we equip this style past. It 
is made after an English design 
and is the same as supplied by our 
London House to some of the best 
clubs in great Brittain. 



No.B. Per pair, $10.00 

Send for Spalding's handsome catalogue of athletic 
sports. 




C. SPALDING & BROS. 

New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Frand^ 

n^'T? v>,-^Trt?°^\f. Baltimore Kansas City New Allans 
Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal. Canada London. Enjrland ^ HaXrg/Cei^anv 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

rOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 



GRAND PRJZE 

ST LOUIS 

1904 

V 






Spalding 
Casino Tennis Post>s 



^ Extra heavy square 
wood posts, painted 
red and nicely varnish- 
ed and striped. Pulley 
wheel at top of each 
post to take top cord 
of net and reel of 
improved pattern to 
tighten net fastened to 
one post. Has extra 
heavy japanned iron 
brackets to steady 
posts and extends 24 
inches into the ground 
when set up. 

No. C. Casino Posis. 
Per pair, $6.00 



:DQz 



A. C. SPALDING <&, BROS. 



£=. 



I New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

I Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

I Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
I Montreal. Canada London, England Hamburg. Germany 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

GRAND PRIX 

PARIS 

1900 





Send for 
Spalding's 
Illustrated 
Catalogue of all 
Athletic Sports 



s 



palding 

Tennis Posts 

Square posts of wood, hand- 
somely painted in red with 
black striping; japanned iron 
bracket bases to steady poles, 
which are inserted 24 inches 
into the ground. No guy 
ropes necessary. 
No. D. Per pair, $4.00 

Reel for Tennis Posts 




Improved pattern, japanned 
fimsh, wooden handle. 
No. R. Each, $1.50 



r^ 



A. C. SPALDING & BROS. 



(U, 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 
Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR iPALDWC ATHLETIC GOODS 



*^ 





Spalding Tennis Poles 

Finely polUlicd, solid, spiked tennis 
poles. Packed complete with guy- 
ropes and pegs. 

No. E. Per pair, $2.00 

Good quality solid tennis poles. 

Packed complete with guy ropes and 

pegs. 

No. F. Per pair, $ 1 .00 

INDOOR TENINIS POLES 

Made with iron base and spike to fit 
into iron plates in the floor. Com- 
plete with plates, tees, guy ropes and 
everything necessary for setting up. 

No. G. Per pair, $2.50 '^ r\ 



^ GUY ROPES AND 


m ^^^^ 


'A FOR TENNIS NETS 



Per set. 



No. 1. Hemp ropes, plain pegs. . 
No. 2. Cotton ropes, p^ain pegs. 
No. 3. Cotton ropes, fancy pegs. 

No. 3 will answer for backstop nets. 
Send for Spalding's Complete Catalogue of all Athletic Sports 



25c. 
50c 
85c 



^ 



A. C. SPALDING & BROS. 



e=^ 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, Enjfland Hamburg, Germany 



i;i 





No. 7 

^o- 3. Special 



.'"?'S;»»-««us 




Spalding 
K.ackeL 
Covers. 



^°- 0. . Brown 
and mixed color- 
ed canvas cover 
full size. 
Each, 35c. 
^°- '. Soft felt 
cover, full size. 
Each, 50c. 
^°-2. Good 
quality moleskin 

,^°^7'- well made 
and full size. 
Each, $1.00 
waterproof cover 




No. 3 

^^^^ed. Superior 



^'cip, lUJi size. . Each «i c/^ 

ffeather, for one racket. Eact' ^^nn 

■^ff leather, for two rackets. .' ^t,' $'.00 



--/o........,..,_,^^^__^^^^^^^^ 



of all Sports. 



A. C. SPALDING & BRosT 

icagro Of T„„- ^ ■ 



I New York Chicago q^- t • 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDING ATHLETIC GOODS 

GRAND PRIZE 4^^ GRAND PRIX 

ST. LOUIS ('l5^iS!!lb;') PARIS 

1904 VX<— yy 1900 




^=^ 



/ 




No 
No 



IR. For one racket. 



3R. 

walnut, 

or two rackets. 



Superior quality, 
with brass fittings. 



Racket* 
Presses 

The most effective 
press in use to-day. 
Rackets should be 
kept in one of them 
when not in use to 
prevent warping, 
especially when 
they have been ex- 
posed to moisture 
or used at the sea- 
shore. 

Each, $1.00 

Made of finely polished 

Suitable for either one 

Each, $2.00 



I 

/ 



RUBBER HANDLE COVERS 

For covering racket handles to secure better grip. 



No. 3. ?^Iade of pure gum rubber, corrugated. Will 
give excellent satisfaction. . . Each, 50c. 

Send for Spalding's Illustrated Catalogue of all Athletic Sports. 



A. C. SPALDING Sc BROS. 



(U, 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 




No. 3-0 
No. 2-0 T^i • ^ 

ordinary centre iron dol n ?'? '"^^"^^ *« t^e 
27t possibly cause the Zll T'^, *^^ -^' -^ 
strike out of court. ^" *° ^'^"ce off and 

^o- 3-0. Tournament P.ff " ' ' ^^^^' ^^-OO 
^"ed .ith a turntuekS :::;h^Tr ^^^ '-'' 0"^- 
-an be adjusted to a ha r vl J. "^ ^"'^^^ «^ net 
nament or match fames'* ^ ^'"^"'^^ ^ ^^ tour- 
I ' • • Each. $1.25 

No . . ^^^ Centre Fork^ 

N:-2- ?T^*-' -tent stirrups™ 

2- Good quality, iron fork ' ^f"^' ^^-OO 

S-d for Spaldin^^s Completl Cat.I ''' 

of all Athletic Sports! "^"^ 

fj^York Ch-^' ^' ^^^*'^''*0~&^^^ 

Boston M ^^^^ St L • '**<OS. O 




HIGHEST AWARDS 

FOR SPALDCNC ATHLETIC GOODS 



GRAND PRIZE 

ST. LOUIS 
1904 




GRAND PRIX 

PARIS 
1900 



=e) G= 





Columbia 

Tennis 

Marker 



l^AKES a clean, even 

ribbon line, with 

contact in full view. 



I. Each, $5.00 



Dry .... 
Tennis Marker 

wo mixing of material. Uses 

marble dust and slaked lime, 

etc. Madesubstantially of iron, 

nicely japanned. The best dry 

tennis marker made. 1 

No. 3. Each, $2.00 

Similar style to above, but small 

No. 2. Each, $1.00 

Send for Spaidinfj's Handsomvhj Illustrated Catalogue of oil Sports 




id ImhUT material. 



A. G. SPALDING & BROS. 



(U 



New York Chicago St. Louis Denver San Francisco 

Boston Minneapolis Baltimore Kansas City New Orleans 

Buffalo Philadelphia Washington Pittsburg Syracuse Cincinnati 
Montreal, Canada London, England Hamburg, Germany 




MJRAND-STEEL 
lOCHERS 

Lockers That, Last, 

\^OODEN lockers are objectionable 
because they attract vermin re- 
tain odors and can be easily broken into 
and are dangerous on account of fire' 
Lockers made from wire mesh or ex- 
panded metal afford little security, as 
they can be easily entered with wire 
cutters. Clothes placed in them become 
covered with dust; and the lockers 
themselves present a poor appearance, 
resembling animal cages. 



Diirand -Steel 
Lockers 

are made of 
high-grade steel 
plates, and are 
finished with 
, , , ^ grloss-black fur- 

nace baked (400o) Japan, comparable to that 
used on hospital ware, which will never flake 
e^ameL""^""''^ refinishing. as do paints and 

Durand-SLeel Lockers 

are usually built with doors perforated full 

soHd T^''^"'^ ^'"^"' ^''^ ^'^^^ ^-d backs 
solid. This prevents clothes in one locker from 
coming in contact with wet garments in adjoin- 
ing lockers while plenty of ventilation is secured 
by having the door perforated its entire length. 

bacVs all'" "' "^^'^^^ "^ ^^^^^^^^ *^^ 

Illustrated Catalogue 

sent on request, 

CHllRCHIll & SPAIOINC 



470 cappoii Aveoue 



CHICAGO, la. 





ATHLETIC 
ft LIBRARY 



Spalding's Athletic Library 

Spalding's Athletic Library is devoted to all athletic sports and pastimes, 
indoor and outdoor, and is the recognized American cyclopedia of sport. 
Each book is complete in itself: and those sports which are governed 
by National Associations always designate Spalding's Athletic Library 
as the official publication. This gives to each book the official authority 
to contain the rules. Each year the books are brought up-to-date, with 
the latest rules, new ideas, new pictures and valuable information, thus 
making the series the most valuable of its kind in the world. The 
price, 10 cents per copy, places them in the reach of all, and no one's 
library can be complete unless all numbers are found therein. 



^ 



13 



13— HOW TO PLAY HAND BALL. ' 

the world's oliamijiun, Michael 
1, of Jersey City. This book has been 
itteu and brought up to date in 
y particular. Every play is thor- 
ily explained by te.xt and diagram, 
numerous illustrations consist of 
pages made from photographs of 
npion Egan, shc^'ving him in all hig 
acteristic attitudes. Price 10 cents. 

14_CURLI1«J. 

short history of this famous Scottish 
im.'. with instructions for play, rules 
le game, detiiiitions of terms and dia- 
as of diCfereut shots. Price 10 cents. 

23— CANOEING. 

• C. Bowyer Vaux. Paddling, sailing, 
;ing and racing canoes and their uses; 
. hints on rig and management; the 
?e of a canoe; sailing canoes; racing 
lations; canoeing and camping. Fully 
trated. Price lU cents. 

27— COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 
. C. Murphy, the well-known athletic 
ler, now with Pennsylvania, the 
lor of this book, has written it espe- 
y for the schoolboy and college man, 
it is invaluable for the athlete who 
les to excel in any branch of athletic 
t. The subjects comprise the follow- 
artides: Training, starting, sprint- 
how to train for the quarter, half, 
and longer distances; walking; high 
broad jumping; hur<lling; pole va\ilt- 
throwing the hammer. It is pro- 
ly illustrated with pictures of lead- 
athletes, and has been revised for 
season of 1906. Price 10 cents. 



G 



-^ 







NO. 29-PULLEY WEIGHT EXERCISES 

By Dr. Henry S. Anderson, instructor 
in heavy gymnastics Yale gymnasium, 
Anderson Normal School, Chautauqua 
University. In conjunction with a chest 
machine anyone with this book can be- 
come perfectly developed. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 55— OFFICIAL SPORTING RULES. 

Contains rules not found in other pub- 
lications for the government of many 
sports; rules for wrestling, cross-country 
running, shufBeboard, skating, snowshoe- 
ing, quoits, potato racing, professional 
racing, racquets, pigeon tlying, dog rac- 
ing, pistol and revolver shooting. Price 
10 cents. 

NO. 87— ATHLETIC PRIMER. 

Edited by James E. Sullivan, Secre- 
tary-Treasurer of the Amateur Athletic 
Union; tells how to organize an athletic 
club, how to conduct an athletic meeting, 
and gives rules for the government of 
athletic meetings; contents also include 
directions for building a track and laying 
out athletic grounds, and a very instruc- 
tive article on training; fully illustrated 
with pictures of leading athletes in ac- 
tion. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 102— GROUND TUMBLING. 

By Prof. TT.nry Walter Worth, who 
was" for years physical director of the 
Armour Institute of Technology. Any 
boy. by reading this hook and following 
the instructions, can become a proficient 
tumbler. Price 10 cents. 



lATHlXTIC 
ILIBRARY^ 




/ATHLETI 
\LIBRAR^ 



\ 



\ 



NO. 104— THE GRADING OF GYMNAS- 
TIC EXERCISES. 

By G. M. Martin, Physical Director 
of the Y. M. C. A. of Youngstown, Ohio. 
It is a book that should be in the hands 
of every physical director of the Y. M. 
C. A., school, club, college, etc. The 
contents comprise: The place of the class 
in physical training; grading of exer- 
cises and season schedules — grading of 
men, grading of exercises, season sched- 
ules for various classes, elementary and 
advanced classes, leaders, optional exer- 
cises. Nearly 200 pages. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 124— HOW TO BECOME A GYMNAST 
By Robert Stoll, of the New I'ork 
A. C, the American champion on the 
flying rings from 1885 to 1892. Any boy 
who frequents a gymnasium can easily 
follow the illustrations and instructions 
in this book and with a little practice 
become proficient on the horizontal and 
parallel bars, the trapeze or the "horse." 
Price 10 cents. 



NO. 128— HOW TO ROW. 

By E. J. Gianninl, of the New Y'ork 
A. C, one of America's most famous 
amateur oarsmen and champions. This 
book will instruct any one who is a 
lover of rowing how to become an ex- 
pert. It is fully illustrated, showing how 
to hold the oars, the finish of the stroke 
and other information that will prove 
valuable to the beginner. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 129— WATER POLO. 

By Gus Sundstrom, instructor at the 
New York A. C. It treats of every de- 
tail, the individual work of the players, 
the practice of the team, how to throw 
the ball, with illustrations and many 
valuable hints. Price 10 cents. 






NO. 138— OFFICIAL CROQUET GUIDR 

Contains directions for playing, dia- 
grams of important strokes, description 
of grounds, instructions for the begin- 
ner, terms used in the game, and the 
oflicial playing rules. Price 10 cents. 



NO. 140— WRESTLING. 

Catch as catch can stvle. Bv E. H. 
Hitchcock, M.D.. of Cornell, and R. P. 
Nelligan, of Amherst College. The book 
contains nearly seventy illustrations of 
the different holds, photographed espe- 
cially and so described that anybody 
who desires to become expert in wrest- 
ling can with little effort learn every 
one. Price 10 cents. 



yji 




NO. 142— PHYSICAL TRAINING 
PLIFIED. 

By Prof. E. B. Warman, the 
known physical culture expert, 
complete, thorough and practical 
where the whole man is considered- 
and body. By following the instru 
no apparatus is required. The bo 
adapted for both sexes. Price lU 

NO. 143— INDIAN CLUBS AND I 
BELLS. 

Two of the most popular forms of 
or gymnasium exercise. This bo 
written by America's amateur cha 
club swinger, J. H. Dougherty, 
clearly illustrated, by which any 
can become an expert. Price 10 c 

NO. 149— THE CARE OF THE ] 

A book fhat all who value 
4 should read and follow its instru< 
" By Prof. E. B. Warman, the well- 
lecturer and authority on physica 
ture. The subject is thoroughly ti 
as a glance at the following sma: 
tion of the contents shows: Ai 
around athlete; muscular Christi 
eating, diet — ^various opinions; b 
fare for brain workers; bill of fa 
muscle-makers; what to eat and 
a simple diet; an opinion on brain 
why is food required? drinking ' 
nutrition — how food nourishes the 
a day's food, how used; constitue 
a day's ration — beefsteak, poi 
bread, butter, water, germs of d: 
etc. Price 10 cents. 



NO. 154— FIELD HOCKEY. 

To those in need of vigorous 
healthful out-of-doors exercise, 
game is recommended highly, 
healthful attributes are manifolc 
the interest of player and spectator 
is kept active throughout the pr 
of the game. The game is promin 
the sports at Vassar, Smith, Wei 
Eryn Mawr and other leading co: 
Price 10 cents. 



NO 156— THE ATHLETE'S GTJID 
How to become an athlete. It co 
full instructions for the beginner, i 
how to sprint, hurdle, jump and 
weight.s. general hints on trainir 
fact, this book is one of the most 
plete on the subject that has ev* 
peared. Special chapters contain 
able advice to beginners and imp 
A. A. U. rules and their explanj 
while the pictures comprise many 
of cbampions in action. Price 10 



i ATHLETICS 
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HO. 157— HOW TO PLAY TENNIS. 

A complete descriptiou of lawn tt-nnis; 
• lesson for beginners and directions tell- 
ing how to make the most important 
■trokes; styles and skill of the experts; 
the American twist service; how to build 
and keep a court. Illustrated from 
photographs of leading players in ac- 
tion. Price 10 cents. 

110. 158— INDOOR AND OUTDOOR 
GYMNASTIC GAMES. 
Without (jut'stion one of the best 
book.s of its kind ever i)ublished. Com- 
piled by IM-of. A. .M. Chesley, th- well- 
known Y. M. C. A. physical director. 
It is a book that will prove valualile to 
lnd(K)r and outdoor jrymnasiums. schools, 
outiiifis and gatherings where there are 
■ number to be amused. The games de- 
Boribrd eomprise a list of 120, divided 
into several gruuiis. Price In cents. 

270. 161— TEN MINUTES' EXERCISE 
FOR BUSY MEN. 
By Dr. Luther Ilalsey Gulick, Director 
of Physical Training in the New York 
public schools. Anyone who is looking 
for a concise and complete course of 
physical education at home would do 
■well to procure a copy of this book. Ten 
minutes' work as directed is I'xercise 
anyone can follow. It already has had a 
large sale and has been highly recom- 
mended by all who have followed its in- 
Btructinns. Nearly HHj pages of illustra- 
tions and 100 of text. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 162— BOXING GUIDE. 

For many years bimUs have been issued 
on the art of boxing, but it has remained 
for us to arrange a book that we think is 
sure to ail all demands. It contains 
over 70 pages of illustrations showing all 
the latest blows, posed especially for this 
liook under the supervision of a well- 
known instructor of bcjxing, who makes 
a specialty of teaching and kmows how 
to impart his knowledge. They are so 
arranged that anyone can easil}' become I 
proficient. A partial list of the contents 
include: The correct position; clenching 
the tist: gauging distance; the tirst prin- 
ciples of hitting; the elements of de- 
f(?nce; feinting; knockout blows; chin 
punch; the blow under the ear; the fam- 
ous Solar plexus knockout; the heart 
blow; famous blows and their origina- 
tors: Fitzsimmons' contribution; the Mc- 
t'oy corkscrew; the kidney punch; *e 
liver punch; the science of boxing; proper 
position of hand and arm; left hook 
to face; hook to the jaw; how to deliver 
the solar plexus; correct delivery of a 
right ui)percut; blocking a right swing 
and sending a right uppercut to chiu; 
blocking a left swing and sending a left 
appercut to chin, etc., etc.; bints on 
training, diet and breathing; how to 
train; rules for boxing. Price 10 cents. 



wjj£\ 




/ArHLETlC 
^LIBRARY, 



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NO. 165— THE ART OF FENCING. 

This is a new book liy Uegis and Louis 
Senac. of New York, famous instructors 
and leading authorities on the subject. 
Messrs. Senac give in detail how every 
move should be made, and tell it so 
clearly that anyone can follow the in- 
structions. It is illustrated with sixty 
full i)age pictures, posed especially for 
this book. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 166— HOW TO SWING INDIAN 
CLUBS. 

I'.y Prof. E. B. Warman. the well- 
known exponent of physical culture. By 
following the directions carefully anyone 
can become an expert. Price 10 cents. 
NO. 167— QUOITS. 

I'.y .M. W. Deshong. The need of a 
book on this interesting game has been 
felt by many who wished to know the 
■ points and tricks used by the ex- 
perts. Mr. Deshong explains them, with 
illustrations, so that a novice can readily 
understand. Prire lo cents. 
NO. 170— PUSH BALL. 

Played with an air-inflated ball 6 
feet in diameter, weighing about 50 
pounds. A side consists of eleven men. 
This book contains the official rules and 
a sketch of the game; illustrated. Price 
h) cents. 

NO. 174— DISTANCE AND CROSS- 
COUNTRY RUNNING. 
]\y Cicii:,. Orion, the famous Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania runner. Tells how 
to become proticient at the quarter, half, 
mile, the longer distances, and cross- 
comitry running and steeplechasing, with 
instructions for training and schedules 
to be observed when jireparing for a 
contest. Illustrated with numerous pic- 
tures of leading athletes in action, with 
comments liy the editor on the good and 
bad points shown. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 177— HOW TO SWIM. 

By J. H. Sterrett, the leading author- 
ity on swimming in America. The in- 
structions will Interest the expert as 
well as the novice; the illustrations were 
made from photographs especially posed, 
shr)wing the swimmer in clear water; a 
valuable feature is the series of "land 
drill" exercises for the beginner, which 
is illustrated by many drawings. The 
contents comprise: A plea for education 
in swimming; swimming as an exercise 
and for development; land drill exer- 
cises; plain swimming; best methods of 
learning; the breast stroke; breathing; 
under-arm side stroke; scientific strokes 
— over-arm side stroke; double over-arm 
or "trudgeon" stroke; touching and 
tuniing; training for racing; ornamental 
swimming; floating; diving; running 
header; back dive; diving feet foremost; 
the propeller; marching on the water; 
swimming on the back. Price 10 cents. 



ATHLETiq 
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ATHLETIC 
^LIBRARY! 



NO. 178— HOW TO TRAIN FOR 
BICYCLING. 

Gives methods of the best riders when 
training for long or short distance races; 
hints on training. Revised and up-to- 
date in every particular. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 180— RING HOCKEY. 

A new game for the gymnasium, in- 
vented by Dr. J. M. Vorhees of Pratt 
Institute, Broolilyn, that has sprung into 
instant popularity; as exciting as basinet 
ball. This book contains official rules. 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 182— ALL-AROUND ATHLETICS. 

Gives in full the method of scoring the 
All-Around Championship, giving percen- 
tage tables showing what each man re- 
ceives for each performance in each of 
the ten events. It contains as well in- 
structive articles on how to train for the 
All-Around Championship. Illustrated 
with many pictures of champions in ac- 
tion and scores at all-around meets. 
Price, 10 cents. 

NO. 185— HEALTH HINTS. 

A series of articles by Prof. E. B. 
Warman, the well-known lecturer and 
authority on physical culture. Prof. 
Warman treats very interestingly of 
health influenced by insulation; health 
influenced by underwear; health influ- 
enced by color; exercise, who needs it? 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 188— LAWN HOCKEY. TETHER 
TENNIS, GOLF CROaUET, VOL- 
LEY BALL, HAND TENNIS, GAR- 
DEN HOCKEY, PARLOR HOCKEY, 
BADMINTON. 
Containing the rules for each game. 

Illustrated. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 189— RULES FOR GAMES. 

Compiled by Jessie H. Bancroft, direc- 
tor of physical training, department of 
education. New York City. These games 
are intended for use at recesses, and all 
but the team games have been adapted 
to large classes. Suitable for children 
from three to eight years, and include 
a great variety. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 191— HOW TO PUNCH THE BAG. 
By W. H. Rothwell ("Young Cor- 
bett"). This book is undoubtedly the 
best treatise on bag punching that has 
ever been printed. Every variety of 
blow used in training is shown and ex- 
plained. The pictures comprise thirty- 
three full page reproductions of Young 
Corbett as he appears while at work in 
his training quarters. The photographs 
were taken by our special artist and 
cannot be seen in any other publication. 
Fancy oag punching is treated by a 
well-known theatrical bag puncher, who 
shows the latest tricks. Price 10 cents. 










NO. 193— HOW TO PLAY BASKET 
BALL. 

By G. T. Hepbron, editor of the Of 
ficial Basket Ball Guide. Contains full 
instructions for players, both for the ex- 
pert and the novice, duties of officials, 
and specially posed full-page pictures 
showing the correct and incorrect methods 
of playing. The demand for a book of 
this character is fully satisfied in this 
publication, as many points are included 
which could not be incorporated in the 
annual publication of the Basket Ball 
Guide for want of room. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 194 — RACQUETS, SQUASH- 
RACQUETS AND COURT TENNIS. 
The need of an authoritative handbook 
at a popular price on these games ia 
filled by this book. How to play each 
game is thoroughly explained, and all 
the difficult strokes shown by special 
photographs taken especially for thia 
book. Contains the official rules for 
each game, with photographs of well- 
known courts. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 199— EQUESTRIAN POLO GUIDE. 

Compiled by H. L. FitzPatrick of the 
New York Sun. Illustrated with por- 
traits of leading players and contains 
most useful information for polo players. 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 200— DUMB-BELLS. 

This is undoubtedly the best work on 
dumb-bells that has ever been offered. 
The author, Mr. G. Bojus, was formerly 
superintendent of physical culture in the 
Elizabeth (N. J.) public schools, in- 
structor at Columbia University (New 
York), instructor for four years at the 
Columbia summer school and is now pro- 
prietor of the Park Place Gymnasium, 
at 14 Park Place, New Y'ork City. The 
book contains 200 photographs of all the 
various exercises with the instructions in 
large, readable type. It should be in the 
hands of every teacher and pupil of 
physical culture, and is invaluable for 
home exercise as well. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 201— LACROSSE 

Bv William C. Schmeisser, captain 
Johns Hopkins University champion 
intercollegiate lacrosse team of 1902; 
edited by Ronald T. Abercrombie, ex- 
captain and coach of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity lacrosse team. 1900-1904. Every 
position is thoroughly explained in a 
most simple and concise manner, render- 
ing it the best manual of the game ever 
published. Illustrated with numerous 
snapshots^ of important plays. Price 10 cts. 



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NO. 202— HOW TO PLAY BASE BALL. 
Kdited by T. 11. Miunaiie. New and 
revised edition. Contents: Ilow to be- 
come a batter, by Napoleon Lajoie, 
James Collins, Hugh Jennings and Jesse 
Tannehill; how to run the bases, by 
Jack Doyle and Frank L. Chance: advice 
to base runners, by James E. Sullivan, 
Sec.-Treas. A.A.U.; how to become a 
gcod pitcher, by Cy Young, "Rube" Wad- 
dell and Bert Cunningham: on curve 
pitching, by Cy Young. James J. Calla- 
han. Frank Donahue, Vic Willis, William 
Dineen and Charley Nichols: how to be- 
come a good catcher, by Eddie Phelps, 
William Sullivan and M. J. Kittridge; 
how to plav first base, by Hugh Jen- 
nings; how to play second base: by 
Napoleon Lajoie and WilliaiU Gleason: 
how to play third base, by James Col- 
lins and Lave Cross: how to play short- 
stop, by Herman Long; how to play the 
Infield, hv Charles A. Comiskey; how to 
play the outfield, by Fred Clarke; the 
earmarks of a ball player, by John J. 
McGraw; good advice for players: how- 
to organize a team; how to manage a 
team; how to score a game; how to 
umpire a game; base ball rules inter- 
preted for boys. Trice 10 cents. 

NO. 207 -BOWLING ON THE GREEN; 
OR, LAWN BOWLS. 
How to construct a green; necessary 
equipment; how to play the game. aii<l 
the otticial rtiles as promulgated by the 
Scottish Bowling Association. Edited 
by Mr. James W. Greig. Hlustrated. 
I'rice, 10 cents. 

NO. 208— PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND 
HYGIENE. 
This is the fifth of the Physical Train- 
ing series, by Prof. E. B. Warman (see 
Nos. 142, 149, 166, 1S5, 213, 261). A glance 
at the contents will show the variety 
of subjects: Chapter I — Basic principles; 
longevity. Chapter II — Hints on eating; 
food values; the uses of salt. Chapter 
III — Medicinal value of certain foods. 
Chapter IV— The efficacy of sugar; sugar, 
food for muscular work; eating for 
strength and endurance; fish as brain 
food; food for the children. Chapter V 
— Digestibility; bread; appendicitis due 
to flour. Chapter VI — Hints on drink- 
ing — water, milk, buttermilk, tea, coffee; 
how to remain young. Chapter VII — 
Hints on bathing; cold, hot, warm, tepid, 
salt, sun, air, Russian, Turkish, cabinet. 
Chapter VIII — Hints on breathing; 
breathlessness, heart strain, second 
wind, yawning, the art of yogi. Price 
10 cents. 




/ATHLETIC 
\ LIBRARY 













NO. 209— HOW TO BECOME A 
SKATER. 

Contains advice for beginners; how to 
become a figure skater thoroughly ex- 
plained, with many diagrams showing 
how to do all the different tricks of the 
best figure skaters, including the Mo- 
hawk, with all its variations; Q's, for- 
ward and backward, inside and outside; 
the crosscuts, including the difficult 
Swedish style; inside and outside spins; 
the grapevine, with its numerous branch- 
es, aii<l many other styles, which will 
be comparatively simple to any one who 
follows the directions given. Profusely 
illustrated with pictur< s of prominent 
skaters and numerous diagrams. I'rice 
!(.» Cents. 

NO. 213—285 HEALTH ANSWERS. 

Contents: Necessity for exercise in the 
summer; three rules for bicycling; when 
goi''g up-hill; sitting out on summer 
nigiits; ventilating a bedroom; ventilat- 
ing a house; how to obtain pure air; 
bathing; salt water baths at home; a 
substitute for ice water; drinking ice 
water; to cure insomnia; asleep in two 
minutes; for those who ride wheels; sum- 
n-er outdoor exercise; profuse perspira- 
tion; danger of checking perspiration; 
dress, hot weather, etc., etc. Compiled 
by Prof. E. B. Warman. Price 10 cents. 



NO. 214— GRADED CALISTHENICS 
AND DUMB-BELL DRILLS. 
By Albert B. Wegener, Physical Di- 
rector Y. M. C. A., Rochester, N. Y. 
Ever since graded apparatus work has 
been used In gymnastics, the necessity 
of having a mass drill that would har- 
monize with it has been felt. For 
years it has been the established custom 
In most gymnasiums of memorizing a 
set drill, never varied from one year's 
eml to the other. Consequently the be- 
ginner was given the same kind and 
amount as the older memb With a 

view to giving uniformity pres'nt 

treatise is attempted. Pric . xO cents. 

NO. 217— OLYMPIC HANDBOOK. 

Compiled by J. E. Sullivan, Chief De- 
partment Physical Culture. Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition, and Director Olym- 
pic Games, 1904. Contains a complete 
report of the Olympic Games of 1904, 
with list of records and pictures of hun- 
dreds of athletes; also reports of the 
games of 1S9G and 1900. Price 10 cents. 



^ATHLETICS 
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NO. 233— JIU JITSU. 

A complete description of this famous 
Japanese sjstem of self-defence. Each 
move thoroughly explained and illus- 
trated with numerous full-page pictures 
of Messrs. A. Minami and K. Koyama, 
two of the most famous exponents of 
the art of Jiu Jitsu, who posed espe- 
cially for this book. Be sure and ask 
for the .Spalding Athletic Library book 
on Jiu Jitsu. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 234— SCHOOL TACTICS AND 
MAZE RUNNING. 

A series of drills for the use of 
schools. Edited by Dr. Luther Halsey 
Gulick, Director of Physical Training in 
the New York public schools. Price 10 
cents. 
NO. 236— HOW TO WRESTLE. 

Without question the most complete 
and up-to-date book on ' wrestling that 
has ever been printed. Edited by F. R. 
Toombs, and devoted principally to 
special poses and illustrations by 
Georges Hackenschmidt, the "Russian 
Lion." It shows the champion in many 
poses, and also contains a special article 
on "Training," in which he gives good 
advice to beginners. The book also con- 
tains in addition many full pages of 
poses by Tom Jenkins and other famous 
wrestlers. Besides showing accurately 
how to secure each hold and fall, the 
book also contains official rules for all 
styles of wrestling. Be sure to ask for 
the Spalding Athletic Library book "How 
to Wrestle." Price 10 cents. 

NO. 237— ASSOCIATION FOOT BALL. 

A complete and up-to-date guide to the 
"Socker" game in the United States, 
containing instructions for playing the 
game, official rules, and interesting news 
from all parts of the country. Illus- 
trated with numerous pictures of lead- 
ing teams. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 238— MUSCLE BUILDING. 

By Dr. L. H. Gulick, Director of 
Physical Training in the New York pub- 
lic schools. A complete treatise on the 
correct method of acquiring muscular 
strength. Mlrastrated with numerous 
full-page » neravings. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 241.^w£^CIAL HANDBOOK OF 
THE &:&,V. 
The A. A.m. fs the governing body of 
athletes in the United States of America, 
and all games must be held under Its 
rules, which are exclusively published In 
this handbook, and a copy should be in 
the hands of every athlete and every 
club officer in America. This book con- 
tains the official rules for running, jump- 
ing, weight throwing, hurdling, pole 
Taulting, swimming, boxing, wrestling, 
etc. Price 10 cents. 









/ATHLETIC 
\ LIBRARY 



NO. 242— HOW TO PLAY FOOT BALL. 

Edited by Walter Camp. The con- 
tents embrace everything that a beginner 
wants to know and many points that an 
expert will be glad to learn. The pic- 
tures ar,^ made from snapshots of leading 
teams and pla.rers in action, with com- 
ments by Walter Camp. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 245— OFFICIAL Y.M.C.A. HAND- 
BOOK. 

Edited by G. T. Hepbron, the well- 
known athletic authority. It contains 
the official rules governing all sports 
under the jurisdiction of the Y.M.C.A., 
a complete report of the physical direc- 
tors' conference, official Y.M.C.A. scor- 
ing tables, pentathlon rules, many pic- 
tures of the leading Y.M.C.A. athletes 
of the count'-y, official Y.M.C.A. athletic 
rules, constitution and by-laws of the 
Athletic League of Y.M.C.A., all-around 
Indoor test, volley ball rules; illustrated. 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 246— ATHLETIC TRAINING FOR 
SCHOOLBOYS. 

This book is the most complete work 
of its kind yet attempted. The compiler 
is Geo. W. Orton, of the University of 
Pennsylvania, a famous athlete himself 
and who is well qualified to give in- 
structions to the beginner. Each event 
In the intercollegiate programme Is 
treated of separately, both as regard* 
method of training and form. By fol- 
lowing the directions given, the young 
athlete will be sure to benefit himself 
without the danger of overworking as 
many have done through Ignorance, ren- 
dering themselves unfitted for their task 
when the day of competition arrived. 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 248— ARCHERY. 

A new and up-to-date book on this fas- 
cinating pastime. Edited by Mr. Loui» 
Maxson of Washington, D. C, ex-Na- 
tional champion. Contains a history of 
archery from its revival as a pastime 
In the eighteenth century to the present 
time, with Ikt of winners and scores of 
the English Grand championships from 
1844; National Archery Association of 

. the United States winners and scores; 

* the several varieties of archery; Instruc- 
tions for shooting; how to select imple- 
ments: how to score; and a great deal of 
Interesting information on the game. 
Illustrated. Price 10 cents. 



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NO. 249— HOW TO BECOME A 
BOWLER. 
By S. Karpf. Secretary of the Ameri- 
can liowliiij,' Cougress, and one of the 
best posted men on bowling in America. 
Contents: History of the sport; diagrams 
of effective deliveries; how to bowl; a 
few hints to beginners; American Bowl- 
ing Congress; the national champion- 
fihips; how to build an alley; how to 
score; spares — how they are made. Rules 
for cocked hat, cocked hat and feather, 
quintet, battle game, nine up and nine 
down, head pin and four back, ten pins 
— head pin out, five back, the Newport 
game, ten pin head, pin game, duckpin 
game, head pin game. New England 
candle pin game. Illustrated with por- 
traits of all the prominent bowlers. 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 250— OFFICIAL ATHLETIC AL- 
MANAC. 
Compiled by J. E. Sullivan, Chief De- 
partment Physical Culture, Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition, and Director Olym- 
pic Games, 1904. The only annual pub- 
lication now issued that contains a com- 
plete list of amateur best-on-records; 
complete intercollegiate records; complete 
English records from 1866; swimming 
records; interscholastic records; Irish, 
Scotch and Australasian records; reports 
of leading athletic meets; skating 
records; important athletic events and 
numerous photos of individual athletes 
and leading athletic teams. Price 10 cts. 

NO. 251 — CANADIAN FOOT BALL 
GUIDE. 
Edited by Frank D. Woodworth, Sec- 
retary-Treasurer Ontario Rugby Foot Ball 
Union. The official book of the game 
In Canada. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 252— HOW TO SPRINT. 

A complete and detailed account of 
how to train for the short distances. 
Every athlete who aspires to be a 
sprinter can study this book to advan- 
tage and gain a great deal of useful 
knowledge. Price 10 cents. * 

NO. 253— OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF 
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ATHLETIC 
LEAGUE. 

This is the official handbook of the 
Public Schools Athletic League, which 
embraces all the public schools of Greater 
New York. It contains the official rules 
that govern all th(> contests of the 
league, and constitution, by-laws and 
officers. Edited by Dr. Luther Ilalsey 
Gulick, superintendent of physical edu- 
cation in the New York public schools. 
Illustrated. Price 10 cents. 




tolLETIC 
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NO. 254--BARNJUM BAR BELL DRILL. 

Edited by Dr. R. Tait McKenzie, Di- 
rector Physical Training, University of 
Pennsylvania. Profusely illustrated. 

Price 10 cents. 



NO. 255— HOW TO RUN 100 YARDS. 

By J. W Morton, the noted British 
champion. Written by Mr. Mortoa 
during his recent American trip, In 1905, 
especially for boys. Mr. Morton knows 
how to handle his subject, and his ad- 
vice and directions for attaining speed, 
will undoubtedly be of immense assist- 
ance to the great majority of boys who 
have to rely on printed Instruction*. 
Many of Mr. Morton's methods of train- 
ing are novel to American athletes, but 
his success is the best tribute to their 
worth. Illustrated with photographs of 
Mr. Morton in action, taken especially 
for this book. In New York City. Price 
10 cents. 

NO. 256— OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF 
THE ONTARIO HOCKEY ASSOCI- 
ATION. 
Edited by W. A. Hewitt, or Toronto. 
Contains the official rules of the Associ- 
ation, constitution, rules of competition, 
list of officers, and pictures of leading 
players. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 258— INDOOR BASE BALL. 

.\meriea's national game is now vielng 
with other indoor games as a winter 
pastime. This book contains the play- 
ing rules, pictures of leading teams, and 
iiiieresting articles on the game. Price 
10 cents. 

NO. 259— WEIGHT THROWING. 

By James S. MItchel, Champion Amer- 
ican weight thrower, and holder of 
.American, Irish, British and Canadian 
championships. Probably no other man 
in the world has had the varied and long 
experience of James S. Mitchel in the 
weight throwing department of athletics. 
The book Is written in an instructive 
way, and gives valuable information, 
not only for the novice, but for the ex- 
pert as well. It Is replete with lifelike 
Illustrations of Champion John Flanagan 
throwing the hammer, Dennis Horgan, 
British and Irish champion shot putter, 
and others. Price 10 cents. 



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NO. 260— OFFICIAL BASKET BALL 
GUIDE FOR WOMEN. 

Edited by Miss Senda Berenson, of 
Smith College. Contains the official 
rules of the game as revised by the 
Executive Committee, October, 1905, and 
articles on the following subjects: 
Games for v^omen, by E. Hitchcock, Di- 
rector of Physical Training, and Dean 
of College, Amhurst College; condition 
of women's basket ball in the Middle 
West, by W. P. Bowen, Michigan State 
Normal College; a few suggestions about 
the actual playing of basket ball, by 
Agnes C. Childs, A. M., Smith College; 
psychological effects of basket ball for 
women, by Dr. L. H. Gulick, superin- 
tendent of physical training in the 
BChools of Greater New York; physi- 
ological effects of basket ball, by 
Theodore Hough, Ph. D. ; significance of 
basket ball for women, by Senda Beren- 
son; relative merit of the Y. M. C. A. 
rules and women's rules, by Augusta 
Lane Patrick, director of physical train- 
ing, Montclair (N. J.) High School; A 
Plea for Basket Ball, by Julie Ellsbee 
Sullivan, Teachers' College, New York; 
diagram of field. Illustrated with many 
pictures of basket ball teams. Price 10 
cents. 

NO. 261— TENSING EXERCISES. 

By Prof. E. B. Warman, and uniform 
with his previous numbers on Scientific 
Physical Training (see Spalding's Ath- 
letic Library Nos. 142, 149, 166, 185, 
208. 213). The "Tensing" or "Resist- 
ing" system of muscular exercises is the 
most thorough, the most complete, the 
most satisfactory, and the most fascina- 
ting of systems. Only forty minutes are 
required to take all the exercises. The 
Illustrations comprise nearly 70 photo- 
graphs. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 262— MEDICINE BALL. 

This book is not a technical treatise, 
but a series of plain and practical exer- 
cises with the medicine ball, suitable for 
boys and girls, business and professional 
men, in and out of gymnasium. Lengthy 
explanation and technical nomenclature 
have been avoided and illustrations used 
Instead. The exercises are fascinating 
and attractive, and avoid any semblance 
of drudgery. Edited by W. J. Cromie, 
physical director Germantown (Pa.) 
Y.M.C.A. Price 10 cents. 




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ATHLETIC 
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NO. 263— ICE HOCKEY AND ICE POLO, 

Written by the most famous player in 
Canada, A. Farrell, of the Shamrock 
hockey team of Montreal. It contains a 
complete description of the game, its 
origin, points of a good player, and an 
instructive article on how game i8 
played, with diagrams and ofiicial rules. 
Illustrated with pictures of leading 
teams. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 264^ROLLER POLO AND ROLLER 
SKATING GUIDE. 
Edited by J. C. Morse. A full descrip- 
tion of the game; official rules; records. 
The revival of the popular pastime of 
roller skating has led the publishers to 
Include in this book complete directions 
for fancy skating, rink rules, etc. 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 265— SPALDING'S LAWN TENNIS 
ANNUAL. 
Edited by H. P. Burchell, of the New 
York Times. Contents include a report of 
every important tournament played in 
1905, embracing the National Champion- 
ship, sectional and State tournaments; 
invitation and open tournaments; inter- 
collegiate and interscholastic champion- 
ships; women's national championships; 
foreign championships; indoor champion- 
ships; official ranking for each year from 
1885 to 1905; laws of lawn tennis; in- 
structions for handicapping; decisions on 
doubtful points; regulations for the man- 
agement of tournaments; directory of 
clubs; directions for laying out and 
keeping a court; tournament notes. Il- 
lustrated with pictures of leading play- 
ers. Price 10 cents. 



NO. 266 — SPALDING'S OFFICIAL 
CRICKET GUIDE. 

Edited by Jerome Flannery. The most 
complete year book of the game that 
has ever been published in America. Re- 
ports of special matches, official rules 
and pictures of all the leading teams 
and individual players. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 267— MINOR LEAGUE BASE BALL 
GUIDE. 

The minors' own guide. Contains pic- 
tures of leading teams, schedules, re- 
port of annual meeting National Asso- 
ciation of Professional Base ''''O 
Leagues, special articles and officia' t^ere 
Edited by President T, H. Miv:''o°cient 
the New England League - ^J°fn^ con- 



cents. 



.lO cents. 



WHLETid 
) LIBRARY/ 




NO. 268 — OrnCIAL HANDBOOK 
UNITED STATES INTERCOLLE- 
GIATE LACROSSE LEAGUE. 
Contains c-unstitutinn, by-laws and 
plavlng rules. Prioi- 10 cents. 
NO. 269 — OFFICIAL INTERCOL- 
LEGIATE A.A.A. HANDBOOK. 
Contains constitution, by-laws, laws 
of athletics and rules to govern the 
awarding of the championship cup of the 
Intercollegiate Athletic Association of 
Amateur Athletes of America, the gov- 
erning body in college athletics. Con- 
tains official intercollegiate records from 
1876 to 1905, with the winner's name 
and time in each event, list of points 
won bv each college, and list of officers 
of the' association from 1889 to 1905. in- 
clusive. Trice in cents. 
NO. 270 — OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF j 
THE COOK COUNTY (CHICAGO) 
HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC 

LEAGUE. 
Contains mnstitution, records, etc. 

Price lu cents. 

NO. 271— OFFICIAL ROQTTE GUIDE. 

The official publication of the National 
Roque Association of America. Edited 
Ly Prof. Charles Jacobus, ei-champion. 
Contains a description of the courts and 
their construction, diagrams of the field, 
illustrations, rules and valuable infor- 
mation. Price 10 cents. 
NO. 272— OFFICIAL HANDBOOK BAL- 
TIMORE BASE BALL I'ROTEC- 
TIVE ASSOCIATION. 
Contaiuin'-' ((institution and By-Laws 
iind list ut Club M.'Uibers. Price, 10 
cents. 

NO. 273— THE OLYMPIC GAMES AT 
ATHENS, 1906. 
A cumphte account of the Olympic 
Games of I'JOO, at Athens, the greatest 
International Athletic Contest ever held. 
Containing a short history of the games, 
story of the American team's trip and 
their reception at Athens, complete list 
of starters in every event; winners, 
their times and distances; the Stadium; 
list of winners in previous 01ynii)ic 
Games at Athens, Paris and St. Lmiis, 
and a great deal of other interesting 
information. Compiled by J. E. Sulli- 
van, Special Commissioner from the 
United States to the Olympic Games. 
Illustrated with numerous pictures of 
scenes at the games and leading offi- 
cials, taken especially for this book. 
Price, 10 cents. 

NO. 274— INTERCOLLEGIATE CROSS 
COUNTRY HANDBOOK. 
Contains constitution and by-laws, list 
of officers, and records of the associa- 
tion. Price, 10 cents. 




4«A 



toHLETlC 
^LIBRARY 








NO. 275— SPALDING'S OFFICIAL FOOT 
BALL GUIDE, 
Edited Ity Walter Camp. Contains the 
new rules, with diagram of field; All- 
America teams as selected by leading 
authorities; reviews of the game from 
various sections of the country; 19o5 
scores of all the leading teams; pictures 
of hundreds of players. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 276— SPALDING'S OFFICIAL GOLF 
GUIDE. 

This edition of Spalding's Official Golf 
Guide is the most useful and attractive 
issue of this popular book. The feature 
of its contents is a complete series of 
chapters by James Braid, the English 
Open Champion of 19(if;, giving full in- 
structions for becoming proficient in the 
game. A glance at the chapter head- 
ings will give an idea of the variety 
and value of the contents: Beginners' 
wrong ideas; method of tuition; choos- 
ing the clubs; how to grip the club; 
stance and address In driving; the up- 
ward swing in driving; the top of the 
swing; the downward swing; flnishitig 
the stroke; the long ball; pulling and 
slicing; playing in a wind; brassey i-lay; 
play with iron clubs; cleek shots; the 
iron; the running-up shot; the mushie; 
the niblick; putting; playing the round. 
Numerous full page pictures of Cham- 
pion Braid in action add to the attrac- 
tiveness of the book. The other con- 
tents include the official rules and other 
subjects of interest to golfers. Price 10 
cents. 

NO. 278— COLLEGIATE BASKET BALL 
GUIDE, 
The official publication of the new 
Collpgiate Basket Ball organization. 
Contains the official rules, collegiate and 
high school records. All America selec- 
tions, reviews of the collegiate basket 
l)all season of lOO.i-6, and pictures of 
all the prominent college teams and In- 
dividual players. Edited by Harry A. 
Fisher, of Columbia. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 280— OFFICIAL BASKET BALL 
GUIDE. 
Edited by George T. Ilepbron. Con- 
rains the revised official rules, decisioua 
>ix disputed points, records of prominent 
ti^ams, reports on the game from various 
parts of the country, and pictures of 
hundreds of players. Price, 10 cents. 



II. 



ATHLETIC 
/ LIBRARY^ 




ATHLETIC 
\LIBRARYi 



An Encyclopedia of Base Ball 



A TTENTION is called to the numbers of Spalding's 
^^ Athletic Library on this and opposite page, 
embracing the greatest collection of books of instruc- 
tion for playing the various positions in the game ever 
published. These books are entirely new and up-to-date, 
and contain the latest methods of play. Each number 
is complete in itself and is profusely illustrated. Be 
sure and ask for Spalding's Athletic Library. Price 
10 cents for each book. For detailed description see 
following numbers. 



No. 257 
SPALDING'S OFFICIAL BASE BALL GUIDE. 

The leading base ball annual of the country, and the official authority 
of the game. Edited by Henry Chadwick, the "Father of Base Ball." 
Contains the official playing rules, pictures of all the teams in the 
National, American and minor leagues ; official averages ; reviews of the 
season in all the professional organizations ; college base ball ; early 
history of the game, and a great deal of information. Price 10 cents. 



&- 



NO. 219— READY RECKONER OF BASE 
BALL PERCENTAGES. 

To supply a demand for a book which 
would show the percentage of clubs with- 
out recourse to the arduous work of fig- 
uring, the publishers have had Mr. J. B. 
Foster, Sporting Editor of the New York 
Evening Telegram, compile a book which 
answers every requirement, and which 
has met with the greatest praise for its 
accuracy and simplicity. No follower 
of the game can afford to be without It. 
Price 10 cents. 




-^ 



NO. 223— HOW TO BAT. 

The most important part of ball play- 
ing nowadays, outside of pitching, is 
batting. The team that can bat and 
has some good pitchers can win base ball 
games; therefore, every boy and young 
man who has, of course, already learned 
to catch, should turn his attention to 
this department of the game, and there 
is no better way of becoming proficient 
than by reading this book and then con- 
stantly practising the little tricks ex- 
plained therein. Price 10 cents. 



AUG 22 1901 



ATHLETIG 
; LIBRARY/ 



m 



XO. 224— HOW TO PLAY THE OUT- 
FIELD. 

Compiled especially for the young 
player who would become an expert. 
The best book on playing the outfltld 
that has ever been published. There 
are just as many tricks to be learned, 
before a player can be a competent 
fielder, as there are In any other posi- 
tion on a nine, and this book explains 
them all. Illustrated with numerous 
page pictures of leading outfielderB. 
Price 10 cents. 

NO. 225— HOW TO PLAT FIRST BASE. 

No other position In a ball team has 
shown such a change for the better In 
recent years as first base. Modifications 
In line with the betterment of the sport 
In every department has been made at 
Intervals, but in no other department 
have they been so radical. No boy who 
plays the initial sack can afford to over- 
look the points and bints contained in 
this book. Entirely new and up to date. 
Illustrated with full-page pictures of all 
the prominent first basemen. Price 10 
cents. 

NO. 226— HOW TO PLAY SECOND 
BASE. 

There are so few men who can cover 
second base to perfection that their 
names can easily be called off by anyone 
who follows the game of base ball. 
Team owners who possess such players 
would not part with them for thousands 
of dollars. These men have been inter- 
viewed and their ideas incorporated In 
this book for the especial benefit of boys 
who want to know the fine points of play 
at this point of the diamond. Illustrated 
with full-page pictures. Price 10 ceuts. 

NO. 227— HOW TO PLAT THIRD BASE. 

Third base is, in some respects, the 
most Important of the infield. No major 
league team has ever won a pennant 
without a great third baseman. Collins 
of the Boston Americans and Leach of 
Pittsburg are two of the greatest third 
basemen the game has ever seen, and 
their teams »we much of the credit for 
pennants they have won to them. These 
men In this book describe just how they 
play the position. Everything a player 
should know is clearly set forth and any 
boy will surely increase his chances of 
success by a careful reading of this 
book. Illustrated. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 228— HOW TO PLAT SHORTSTOP. 
Shortstop is one of the hardest posi- 
tions on the infield to fill, and quick 
thought and quick action are necessary 
for a player who expects to make good 
as a shortstop. The views of every well- 
known player who covers this position 
have been sought in compiling this book, 
and it is offered as being the most com- 
plete book of its class ever produced. 
Illustrated. Price 10 cents. 




/ATHl^TlCi 
kiBRARYfi 






^H.,^ 



n. 



NO. 229— HOW TO CATCH. 

Undoubtedly the best book on catchinr 
that has yet been published. Every boy 
who has hopes of being a clever catcher 
should read how well-known player» 
cover their position. Among the more 
noted ones who describe their methods 
of nlay in this book are Lou Criger of 
the Boston Americans and Johnnie Kllng 
of the Chicago Nationals. The numerous 
pictures comprise all the notid catchers 
In the big leagues. Price 10 cents. 
NO. 130— HOW TO PITCH. 
A new, up-to-date book. No boy can 
afford to be without a copy of it. Edited 
by John B. Foster of the Evening Tele- 
gram (New York). The object of this 
book is to aid the beginners who aspire 
to become clever twirlers, and its con- 
tents are the practical teaching of men 
who have reached the top as pitchers, 
and who have had experience. All the 
big leagues' pitchers are shown. Price 
10 cents. 

NO. 231— HOW TO COACH; HOW TO 
CAPTAIN A TEAM; HOW TO 
MANAGE A TEAM; HOW TO 
UMPIRE; HOW TO ORGANIZE A 
LEAGUE. 
A useful guide to all who are inter- 
ested in the above subjects. Jimmy Col- 
lins, manager-captain of the Bostoa 
Americans, writes on coaching; M. J. 
Kelly of the Minneapolis team, on 
captaining; Al Buckenberger of the 
Rochester team, on managing; Frank 
Dwyer of the American League staff, on 
umpiring; Fred Lake on minor leagues, 
and the editor, T. H. Murnane, Presi- 
dent of the New England League, on how 
to organize a league. Price 10 cents. 

NO. 232— HOW TO RUN THE BASES. 

The importance of base running as a 
scientific feature of the national game is 
becoming more and more recognized each 
year. Besides being spectacular, feats of 
base stealine nearly always figure In the 
winning of a game. Many a close contest 
is decided on the winning of that little 
strip of 90 feet which lies between 
cushions. When hits are few and the 
enemy's pitchers steady, it becomes in- 
cumbent on the opposing team to get 
around the bases In some manner. Ef- 
fective stealing not only Increases the ef- 
fectiveness of the team by advancing its 
runners without wasting hits, but it 
serves to materially disconcert the 
enemy and frequently has caused an 
entire opposing club to temporarily lose 
its poise and throw away the game. 
This book gives clear and concise direc- 
tions for excelling as a base ruiiner; 
tells when to run and when not V do 
so; how and when to slide; team wvrTk 
on the bases; in fact, every point of the 
game Is thoroughly explained. Illus- 
trated with pictures of leading playerg. 
Frlce 10 cents. 



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